Philadelphia Art News Vol. 1 No. 12

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<titlePart type="main">PHILADELPHIA ART NEWS</titlePart>
<titlePart type="sub">ALL THE NEWS OF PHILADELPHIA ART IMPARTIALLY REPORTED</titlePart>
<docDate><date when="1938-04-11">APRIL 11, 1938</date></docDate>
<docEdition>Vol. 1 - - - No. 12</docEdition>
<docDate>Ten Cents per Copy</docDate>
<titlePart type="halftitle">PHILADELPHIA ART NEWS</titlePart>
<docImprint>Published every second Monday by</docImprint>
<docImprint>BEN WOLF PUBLICATIONS, INC.</docImprint>
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<div type="masthead">
<list>
<item>Ben Wolf</item>
<item><emph>President-Treasurer</emph></item>
<item>Henry W. Taylor</item>
<item><emph>Vice-President-Secretary</emph></item>
<item>Russell P. Fairbanks</item>
<item><emph>Advertising and Circulation Manager</emph></item>
</list>
<list>
<item><emph>Managing Editor</emph></item>
<item>BEN WOLF</item>
</list>
</div>
<div type="copyright">
<p>Subscription Rates</p>
<p>One year&#x2014;20 issues&#x2014;$1.25</p>
<p>Copyright 1937, Ben Wolf Publications, Inc.</p>
<p>This publication and all the material contained in it are the subject matter of copyright.</p>
<p>Circulation 900</p>
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<p><name>Philadelphia Art News</name></p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-01">
<head>PHOTOGRAPHS SHOWN AT DREXEL</head>
<p>An international exhibition of photography opens the new &#x201C;gallery within a gallery&#x201D;&#x2014;a set of inner walls which can be dismantled when not in use&#x2014;at the Drexel Institute of Technology. The gift of Edward P. Simon, the new museum device is used to advantage to display a splendid collection of over one hundred prints by American and foreign photographers.</p>
<p>Aside from the general excellence of the photographs, at least one other feature makes this exhibit unusually interesting, the display of the original print with the final enlargement, as in Dr. Clarence Kern&#x2019;s study of a New England church. The comparison of the amount of detail in the two prints provides an illuminating commentary on the methods of the miniature cameraman. Again, in Dana Mitchell&#x2019;s still life, onions rolled out of a bushel basket, it is of interest to note the improvement in composition made by cutting off a section of the negative.</p>
<p>Among exceptionally fine prints might be noted the skiing and snow scenes by Aldo Chiappero, Donald Miner&#x2019;s series of sand patterns, the composition in water reflections by the Philadelphian, Alfred A. DeLardi, and the revealing portrait of Alfred Stieglitz, dean of American photographers, by William Hill Field.</p>
<p>This exhibition, lent through the courtesy of Carl Zeiss, Inc., is the first of a series planned by the Advisory Art Committee of the college, devised to meet particularly the needs of students and to relate art to contemporary industrial life. The members of the Art Committee are Edward P. Simon, architect, chairman; Nicola D&#x2019;Ascenzo, artist and designer of stained glass; Samuel Yellin, artist and designer of wrought iron; and Dorothy Grafly, art critic and writer, who is curator of the Drexel Museum and Picture Gallery.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-02">
<head>GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIPS AWARDED</head>
<p>Three Pennsylvanians are among the recipients of Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships in the field of art this year. Dr. Carl Schuster, assistant curator of Chinese Art at the Pennsylvania Museum was awarded a second Fellowship to pursue further his comparative study of Chinese folk art, while Ahron Ben-Shmuel, Upper Black Eddy, and Janet de Coux, Gibsonia, were given awards for creative work in sculpture.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-03">
<head>CENTER PLAY</head>
<p>Commonly regarded as &#x201C;Leftist&#x201D; by the Conservatives of the Art World, the Federal Arts Committee has veered towards center in a statement made by Stevens Maxey, its Executive Secretary, in response to the tentative Federal Arts Bureau proposal published in the Philadelphia Art News of <date when="--03-14">March 14</date>. After a summary of the policy of the Committee Mr. Maxey says:</p>
<p>&#x201C;In conclusion, if all sections of the Art World will get behind your suggestions for a democratic administration, etc., the Committee is prepared to whole-heartedly support it.</p>
<p>&#x201C;Specifically . . . &#x2018;An artist is one who is practicing as a vocation rather than as an avocation, one or more of the Arts.&#x2019;</p>
<p>&#x201C;The functions, powers and duties of the Bureau shall include no relief projects whatsoever. Persons now employed on the Projects sponsored by the WPA who are not found eligible under the Bureau of Fine Arts shall remain under the jurisdiction&#x2014;of the Federal Relief Administration.</p>
<p>&#x201C;The regional administration will be vested in advisory committees elected by all art organizations of 50 or more members, serving without compensation. The Advisory Committee will elect the regional committeemen, determine what persons qualify as Artists, and advise the regional administrations as to what projects shall be carried out in each region. These are your proposals. If the majority of artists and art organizations. (Fine Art&#x2019;s Federation, etc.) will support these provisions you have outlined, the Federal Arts Committee will whole-heartedly accept them and work for their accomplishment.&#x201D;</p>
<p>This offers an opportunity for an accord between the representative art groups of America. Undeniably the Pepper-Coffee proposal has hung a veil of suspicion between the Conservatives and any proposal for the establishment of a Federal Arts Bureau. Nevertheless it is conceivable that a Bureau could be created which would benefit art as a whole. This may be the time to do it if it is ever to be done. Can we, whether we be radical or conservative, swallow our distrust, concentrate on the idea at hand, join forces with all who are interested in art, and do the job?</p>
<p>If not, it seems probable that another 10 or 25 years will pass before art will make a major adjustment to the current enormous sociological and economic changes.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-04">
<head>SETTLEMENT SCHOOL EXHIBITS</head>
<p>Matisse is reported to have said, after seeing an exhibition of children&#x2019;s work, that he had no further desire to paint. The statement may be extreme, but certainly many artists, visiting the Settlement Music School&#x2019;s Exhibition at Broad and Spruce Sts. will more than admire the free imagination in which the sculpture, drawings, and paintings in this show have been conceived.</p>
<p>Characterized by great strength and vitality, the sculpture displays a comprehensive knowledge of the structure and plasticity of the human figure. The little painted clay statuettes by the younger classes, the wood-carvings, the large figure pieces&#x2014;all show a highly original manipulation of masses and planes. Typical of this truly creative spirit is a seated woman, expressing, through elongated forms, a deep weariness and dejection. Finished with a surface resembling that of turquoise bronze, this piece of sculpture achieves unusual unity of form and idea.</p>
<p>The oils, mostly by children of about ten years old, have a fresh, naive quality. With great honesty of approach, they objectify the child&#x2019;s emotions and opinions concerning his own world. The eviction of a family, a group of bright-eyed children, factory workers&#x2014;these are but a few of the subjects the children have creatively reworked into expressive and stimulating pictures.</p>
<p>This exhibition, arranged under the supervision of Antonio Cortizas, art teacher at the School, will be open to the public until <date when="--04-30">April 30</date>.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-05">
<head>PARKWAY TO HAVE MARBLE FRANKLIN</head>
<p>Thirty tons of Benjamin Franklin, now being hewn in the Long Island studio of sculptor James Earle Frabier, will soon travel to Franklin&#x2019;s home city to become the central figure of a huge Memorial at Franklin Institute. The heroic figure, three times life size, is being cut from separate pieces of marble which will be bolted together. A pantograph device, invented by Edmondo Quatrecchi and never before used on a statue in this country, is being employed in the carving.</p>
<p>President Roosevelt and many prominent scientists, statesmen, educators and industrialists are expected to attend the dedication ceremony on <date when="--05-19">May 19</date>.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-06">
<head>ARTISTS TO HOLD BAL MASQUE</head>
<p>The Fourth Annual Bal Masque, under the auspices of the Artists Union, will be held at the Penn Athletic Club on Saturday, <date when="--05-07">May 7</date>. With the theme gone native&#x2014;the motif is &#x201C;Americana&#x201D;&#x2014;art circles are looking forward to the lampooning of persons, institutions and affairs American.</p>
<p>Louis Hirschman, famous for his caricatures of the noted and notorious, constructed of scraps of junk, five-and-ten-cent store articles and kitchen utensils, will design the decorations for this year&#x2019;s affair. They will be three-dimensional scenes from American life with almost life-size figures representing persons of political, economic and social importance.</p>
<p>The &#x201C;Americana&#x201D; theme, however, is not compulsory. The Committee has given its assurance that no one will be refused admittance if he comes as Ghandi instead of an American figure.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-07">
<head>EPISCOPAL HOST TO EXHIBITION</head>
<p>Sixteen schools of the Philadelphia area exhibited examples of work done in their art classes, in the gymnasium of the Episcopal Academy, City Line and Berwick Road on <date when="--04-04">April 4th</date>, 5th and 6th.</p>
<p>No attempt was made for comprehensive representation of the work of the art departments of these schools. Nevertheless the show was gay and stimulating, and bespeaks an excellent cooperative spirit between educators. The schools represented were: Germantown Academy, William Penn Charter, Miquon, Haverford, Shipley, Moorestown Friends&#x2019;, Friends&#x2019; Select, Holman, Episcopal, Stevens, Baldwin, Westtown, Agnes Irwin, Haverford Friends&#x2019;, Springside and Friend&#x2019;s Central.</p>
<p>Mr. William Tefft Schwarz is head of the Art Department of Episcopal Academy.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-08">
<head>FRESH PAINT</head>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig341.jpg"/>
<head>&#x201C;The Hitch-Hiker&#x201D; by Julius Bloch&#x2014;Photograph by Chappel Studio</head>
</figure>
<div>
<head>WELDON BAILEY</head>
<p>The artist is beset by more than one problem over which he has no control.</p>
<p>One of the most prominent is the flourishing art auction of today. The theory of the auction&#x2014;the loot to the highest bidder&#x2014;means generally an unworthy price, in fact a reasonable chance of getting an actual treasure for a song.</p>
<p>Bougereaus, Sullys and Morans have recently been auctioned for absurdly low sums of money, and the art-buying public&#x2019;s reaction to such an experience is far from healthy for the modern artist.</p>
<p>Principally, it places in his none too rosy path an added obstacle&#x2014;it furnishes his potential buyers with a reason for not buying from him. It may even force his prices to the auctioneer&#x2019;s level. And, lastly, he must struggle all the harder for recognition.</p>
<p>The auctioneer is not the artists&#x2019;s friend.</p>
<p>The idea of circulating picture clubs is likewise none too happy for the artist. At first consideration it may appear a boon, but deeper penetration reveals more than one flaw in its construction.</p>
<p>It may be argued that this plan enables an artist to attain greater recognition by means of the enlarged audience offered.</p>
<p>We do not believe that his audience is increased thereby, for subscribers to this plan are generally gallery-goers and would see the artist&#x2019;s work in any case. While purchasers may be found in this manner, it is more likely to discourage purchasing, inasmuch as the painting finds its way into a home for a mere rental. And again, to many members, variety may be the spice of art.</p>
<p>The idea of a purchasing fund established by the club is admirable, so far as it goes. In fact, it is doubtless agreeable to many artists whose work has been sold. To the majority of artist-contributors, however, it means no return.</p>
<p>In a word, under the plan of a circulating picture club, the artist contributes his stock-in-trade, bears the brunt of its usage, and is paid nothing for it unless he be one of the few whose work has been purchased. Furthermore, the club collects dues from its members on the strength of his contributions. And it is inclined to reduce the purchasing inclination of its public.</p>
<p>This is obviously an inadequate system. The artist must in some way be reimbursed for his cooperation&#x2014;possibly in point of royalties. Otherwise, most artist-members give all and receive naught.</p>
<p>The current exhibition of Contemporary Russian Graphic Arts at the School of Industrial Art, sponsored by the American Russian Institute, is not only a vital and stimulating show, but one of great variety of thought and treatment. Included are illustrated books (mostly highly imaginative and ingenious in design), educational posters (bearing the stamp of advanced graphic conception), wood cuts (black and white and in color), and photos of stage sets augmented by color prints of scenic and costume designs.</p>
<p>The last named should prove of extraordinary interest to all theatre-lovers. The photos reveal the sumptuous quality of modern Russian sets, and have been made at the Moscow Art Theatre, Vakhtangou Theatre and Kamering Theatre, among others. Fantasy and vivid design accentuate the color prints of theatrical costumes.</p>
<p>Much pictorial ingenuity and cleverness is to be found in the wood cuts. Vladimir Favorsky, that old pillar of Russian wood-cut&#x2014;for whom we have tremendous admiration&#x2014;is well represented with his wealth of forms and linear patterns so personal to himself, while Kravchenko and Sternberg take next place in point of technical excellence and individuality of composition.</p>
<p>The lithographs of Adolph Dehn, now at the Carlen Galleries, are as provocative as usual. One sees them and is sufficiently disturbed to return to them&#x2014;excellent proof of a good print.</p>
<p>Judging by this show, the artist has two phases: delineation of character devoid of flattery, and a purely pictorial eye cast upon landscape.</p>
<p>In the former we find principally an uncompromising bitterness of approach to humanity and its foibles, interpreted with a highly individualized textural sense plus the ability to make a line say all the unpleasant things this artist thinks about people.</p>
<p>This approach is principally exemplified in such prints as &#x201C;All for a Piece of Meat&#x201D;, &#x201C;We Speak English&#x201D;, &#x201C;Applause&#x201D;, &#x201C;Lohengrin&#x201D; and &#x201C;The Little Sinner&#x201D;.</p>
<p>Dehn&#x2019;s non-figure prints lean more than a little toward Japanesque pictorial thought, to which &#x201C;Storm&#x201D; and &#x201C;Niagara Falls&#x201D; bear ample testimony.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>JANE RICHTER</head>
<p>Five Philadelphia artists inaugurate a new series of shows of inexpensively priced work at the Artists Union with a group exhibition of drawings, pastels and water colors. Lisa Langley presents a group of green landscapes in which the undulating hill and field scene is interpreted with a compact simplicity. Nat Koffman&#x2019;s wash drawings attain a certain sculpturesque quality through emphasis on large rounded areas. Herschel Levit&#x2019;s charcoal portraits for Dostoyevsky&#x2019;s &#x201C;Crime and Punishment&#x201D; amply express the fierceness and passion of their inspiration. Hubert Mesibov has contributed a group of very interesting water colors. Superficially chaotic, these paintings, in their very formlessness reveal a definite pattern. Abe Chanin&#x2019;s water colors, many done during his recent study in Florida, use deep inner-glow colors with a certain fierceness of design.</p>
<p>Interesting as are the revelations of these five distinct personalities, the important point about this show would seem to be its purpose&#x2014;to put living art within the reach of lower-income people. With prices ranging from $2 to $35, a vastly greater number of people will be able to afford original art works. In this particular show, the media chosen are in themselves inexpensive, thus making possible some profit as well as an altruistic gesture for the artist.</p>
<p>Competently executed and endowed with a quiet charm, Mary Butler&#x2019;s oils and water colors, on view at Harcum Junior College, present landscapes and flower pieces of pleasing design and color. &#x201C;River and Beach, Ogunquit,&#x201D; a pattern of dark blue sea, the dark blue curve of the river, rocks, and flat, grey sand, and &#x201C;Autumn in the Berkshires&#x201D;, vertical cornstalks evenly spaced against a low blue mountain, are typical of her oils. In &#x201C;Cathedral Crag&#x2014;A Wet Day&#x201D; the water color fully recreates the mist clinging to the peak. Color and form have a proper indefiniteness.</p>
<p>Jointly exhibiting with Miss Butler is Benton Spruance who shows a characteristically exciting group of lithographs, among them the familiar series &#x201C;The People Work&#x201D;, cross-sections of the labor of a great city. An artist steeped in the contemporary world, Spruance reshapes the matter and mood of his environment into organic relationships. &#x201C;Road from the Shore&#x201D; and &#x201C;Highway Holiday,&#x201D; terrifying visualizations of our mania for speed, repeat the madness of the theme in the long, sweeping distortions of machine and human forms.</p>
<p>Washed in light, John J. Dull&#x2019;s oils and water colors, exhibited at 1525 Locust St., are a record of Philadelphia scenes. All the squares and green places, the skylines, the buildings and boulevards, have been noted down with an unfailing clarity of color and shape.</p>
<p>After seeing &#x201C;Derelict&#x201D;, an embittered portrait in the Y.M.H.A. show, one might have expected a far more radical Joseph Grossman than is revealed in his current exhibition at the Modern Galleries. Here are simply conceived landscapes and still lifes, painted with a texture and color range that suggest pastel. &#x201C;The Lone Tree,&#x201D; a single tree casting the shadow of noon in a field, focuses summer heat. &#x201C;The Old Barn,&#x201D; handled with less restraint and more vitality, convincingly portrays the rural scene.</p>
<p>In a group of fourteen oils at the Women City&#x2019;s Club, Arrah Lee Gaul shows herself to be a painter in very clear, clean color. &#x201C;Desert,&#x201D; a composition in the varying colors of flat land areas accentuated by green patches of sage brush exemplifies both her methods and her point of view. This is not the death-bearing desert of O&#x2019;Keefe, but merely a country of great stillness and tranquillity. It is with this mood that she composed the majority of canvases in the exhibition.</p>
<p>One of the finest of current exhibitions is John Folinsbee&#x2019;s at the Women&#x2019;s University Club. A very free painter, using strong color and composition Folinsbee gives a new and dramatic significance to the Pennsylvania landscape. &#x201C;Dark Hollow Road&#x201D; is typical of this approach. Against an overcast sky, rise great incandescent trees of fall, throwing deep shadows on a narrow road and little group of houses. The beauty here is sinister, man and the fragile buildings he erects being dwarfed by the immensity of the storm filled sky, the gold trees, and the hills.</p>
<p>Also included in this show are a group of delightful child portraits. Broadly painted and informally posed, they portray the inherent gravity and seriousness that young children possess in repose.</p>
<p>A painter of various but always definite ability is June Groff, showing oils and water colors at the A.C.A. Gallery. With methods ranging from the thick, almost paste-like application of paint in &#x201C;Circus Performer,&#x201D; to the very thinly laid-on color of &#x201C;Smoky Mills&#x201D; or &#x201C;Fruit and Wine,&#x201D; she reveals herself as still in the experimental stage, but with a consistently thorough understanding of whatever manner she employs.</p>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig342.jpg"/>
<head>&#x201C;Smoky Mills&#x201D; by June Groff</head>
</figure>
<p>&#x201C;Circus Performers,&#x201D; turbulent both as to design and color; the lyrical &#x201C;Smoky Mills&#x201D; in greys, violets, and deep reds; the small flower picture &#x201C;Anemones&#x201D;&#x2014;these are among the most satisfying canvases in the exhibition.</p>
<p>Julius Bloch&#x2019;s one man show of oils at the Art Alliance is the exposition of a large-minded artist, who looks at men, white or colored, first as human beings, and then as members of a race. There is little essential difference between the portraits, &#x201C;Hitchhiker,&#x201D; a white youth, and &#x201C;Stevedore,&#x201D; a negro laborer; both are symbols of physical and mental exhaustion. The negro subjects who sat for the majority of canvases in this exhibit, were not painted for purposes of satire, or humor, or propaganda, but for themselves, as they possess dignity, and nobility.</p>
<p>Bloch often, of course, displays a very real bitterness toward social practice, as in &#x201C;Lynching,&#x201D; &#x201C;Park Benches,&#x201D; and &#x201C;Prisoner,&#x201D; but it is never mere incoherent protest. The personal feeling of the artist has been sufficiently objectified to make good art as well as good opinion. &#x201C;Prisoners&#x201D; is not the depiction of an isolated negro, but a comprehensive expression of imprisonment in the abstract.</p>
<p>A second one man show at the Art Alliance is that of Margaret Gest&#x2019;s water colors and pastels. Miss Gest, as appears from this group of paintings, is an interpreter of mood and atmosphere, rather than of material fact. In &#x201C;Rain and Cooler&#x201D; we feel the ominous tenseness that precedes a summer storm; in &#x201C;Dark Grove&#x201D; the dominant theme is the mystery of this shadowed group of trees. &#x201C;Rocks&#x201D; a skillful combination of abstract forms, is shot through with an almost physical sensation of strain.</p>
<p>A group of abstractions, &#x201C;The Four Seasons,&#x201D; visualizes the varying themes of the year. Winter&#x2019;s quiescence is seen through a horizontal design of greys and blacks; the growth of spring, in shooting points of blue; the ripeness of summer, in a revolving rose form; while the agitated red, black, and brown swirls of &#x201C;Autumn&#x201D; illustrate the &#x201C;Pestilence stricken multitudes&#x201D; of Shelley&#x2019;s poem.</p>
<p>Replacing the all too prevalent blacks and browns of modern portraiture with light, clear colors, Isaac Rader shows a group of minutely detailed, smoothly painted portraits at Sessler&#x2019;s. The subjects have been informally posed, usually in an interior setting that attempts to reflect their personalities. Mark Twain is shown in an early American kitchen, seated by a window framed in vines; Mrs. Rader, in a blue evening gown, stands in a carefully described living room. The final impression, however, is of a too great concentration on material surroundings, of a too great objectivity, rather than the intended interpretation of the &#x201C;inner man.&#x201D;</p>
<p>The less carefully planned water colors, especially the child portraits, have more spontaneity, and exhibit a more searching appraisal of the subjects.</p>
<p>The eleven artists exhibiting at the Y.M. &amp; Y.W.H.A. have contributed a varied, and generally excellent, group of paintings. If there be a common denominator it is that of integrity, a quality equally apparent in Joe Hirsch&#x2019;s satiric &#x201C;Two Men&#x201D; and in Hortense Ferne&#x2019;s unfinished, but thoroughly charming &#x201C;Portrait Study&#x201D;.</p>
<p>Several of these eighteen paintings seem particularly outstanding. Henry Cooper&#x2019;s &#x201C;After the Rehearsal&#x201D; previously shown in this year&#x2019;s Academy Annual, reiterates a splendid realization of form and glowing color; &#x201C;Reb Mnashe&#x201D; a portrait by Samuel Salko, demonstrates the transmutation of pure emotion into art. Harry Zion&#x2019;s &#x201C;Back Bay,&#x201D; soft blues and green seen through a summer haze, is one of the most satisfying of the landscapes.</p>
<p>Other exhibitors are: Stella Drabkin, Joseph Grossman, Isaac Lipschutz, Herman Rutman, Elizabeth Schupack, and Karl Sherman.</p>
<p>The Annual Exhibition of the Beta Gamma Sigma Sorority of the School of Industrial Art, on view at the Sketch Club, and embracing oils, water colors, pen and ink drawings, pastels, ceramics, and masks, provides a lively review of student work in commercial and fine art.</p>
<p>Particularly interesting are the fashion drawings by Peggy Key and Gerry Snow. Smart, fresh, they compare more than favorably with professional work in the field. Virginia Kibler&#x2019;s paintings, done in large planes and bold colors are outstanding among the oils. The free, brilliant work by Helen Hartel, and the more quietly toned paintings by Margaret Tifft present interesting contrasts in the water color section.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-09">
<head><pb n="2" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-12-2.jpg"/>H. J. RES 599</head>
<head type="sub">(Supplanting H. J. Res. 280)</head>
<p>The modest proposal for a Smithsonian Gallery of Art is little known, perhaps because it is virtually unobjectionable and has not caused much controversy.</p>
<p>This resolution, by Mr. Keller, proposes:</p>
<p>A building to be erected under the supervision of the Director of Procurement, Treasury Department, to be called the Smithsonian Gallery of Art, and to be under the supervision and control of the Regents and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.</p>
<p>To foster art appreciation by public exhibitions in Washington and elsewhere.</p>
<p>To solicit funds from private sources, to acquire and sell contemporary works of art or copies thereof.</p>
<p>To receive donations of works of art from the Director of Procurement, W. P. A., and other agencies of government.</p>
<p>Such a gallery would stimulate contemporary art of non-government origin and would be an exhibition center for the donated art products of the Procurement Division and of W. P. A., at comparatively small cost to taxpayers.</p>
<p>The Keller Resolution would be improved if it provided for scientific researches into the craft of the graphic and plastic arts and for free distribution to practicing artists of the results thereof. The modest Smithsonian Gallery as proposed would have a capacity for growth. It might become all we&#x2019;d want as a Federal Agency for the encouragement of contemporary painting and sculpture.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-10">
<head>&#x201C;IMPRESSIONS OF MARTHA GRAHAM&#x201D;</head>
<p>Julia Bloch, young Philadelphian, famous for her block prints of cats and humorous character studies, has contributed the insert for this issue. Miss Bloch was educated at the School of Design for Women, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts.</p>
<p>She has exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy, the Art Alliance, the Print Club, the Plastic Club and the Warwick Galleries here, and in Atlantic City, N. J.; Brooklyn, N. Y.; Oakland, Calif., and Wichita, Kansas.</p>
<p>As an illustrator of children&#x2019;s books, Miss Bloch will be remembered for her amusing designs for &#x201C;Matilda, The Old Fashioned Hen,&#x201D; the working drawings for which were shown in the 1937 Illustration Show at the Print Club.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-11">
<head><pb n="3" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-12-3.jpg"/>EXHIBITIONS</head>
<list>
<item rend="list-head">1525 LOCUST STREET</item>
<item>Water Colors and Pastels by John Dull. April.</item>
<item rend="list-head">ARTIST&#x2019;S UNION</item>
<item>1212 Walnut Street</item>
<item>Group Show. Koffman, Langley, Chanin, Mesibov, Levit.</item>
<item>Children&#x2019;s Work from Montgomery County. Taught by W. P. A. Teachers. <date when="--04-14">April 14</date>&#x2013;<date when="--05-01">May 1</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">CARLEN GALLERIES</item>
<item>323 South 16th Street</item>
<item>Prints by Adolph Dehn. <date when="--04-01">April 1</date>&#x2013;20. Work by Thomas Handforth. <date when="--04-21">April 21</date> to <date when="--05-04">May 4</date>.</item>
<item>Prints by Wanda Gag. <date when="--05-05">May 5</date>&#x2013;19.</item>
<item rend="list-head">CULTURAL OLYMPICS</item>
<item>3425 Woodland Avenue</item>
<item>Final Festival Exhibition. <date when="--04-27">April 27</date> to <date when="--05-09">May 9</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">FRIENDS CENTRAL SCHOOL</item>
<item>68th and City Line, Overbrook</item>
<item>7th Annual Exhibition of Philadelphia Artists.</item>
<item rend="list-head">HARCUM JUNIOR COLLEGE</item>
<item>Paintings and Lithographs by Mary Butler and Benton Spruance. April.</item>
<item rend="list-head">McCLEES GALLERIES</item>
<item>1615 Walnut Street</item>
<item>18th Century Portraiture.</item>
<item>Contemporary American Painting.</item>
<item rend="list-head">MODERN GALLERIES</item>
<item>1720 Chestnut St.</item>
<item>Paintings by Joseph Grossman, to <date when="--04-27">April 27</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">PENN CHARTER SCHOOL</item>
<item>Germantown,</item>
<item>Oils by Fellowship Members. <date when="--03-15">March 15</date>&#x2013;<date when="--04-15">April 15</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">PENNSYLVANIA MUSEUM</item>
<item>The Parkway</item>
<item>Johnson Collection.</item>
<item>Renoir Exhibit. Opens <date when="--04-16">April 16</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">PHILADELPHIA A. C. A. GALLERY</item>
<item>323 South 16th Street</item>
<item>Oils and Water Colors by June Groff. <date when="--04-05">April 5</date>&#x2013;23.</item>
<item rend="list-head">PHILADELPHIA ART ALLIANCE</item>
<item>251 South 18th Street</item>
<item>Water Colors by Margaret Gest. <date when="--04-05">April 5</date>&#x2013;24.</item>
<item>Oils by Julius Bloch, <date when="--04-05">April 5</date>&#x2013;24.</item>
<item>Members&#x2019; Show. All Media. <date when="--04-05">April 5</date>&#x2013;24.</item>
<item>Water Colors by Earle Miller. <date when="--04-26">April 26</date> to <date when="--05-08">May 8</date>.</item>
<item>Oils by Katherine Farrell. <date when="--04-26">April 26</date> to <date when="--05-08">May 8</date>.</item>
<item>Drawings by Luis Quintanilla. <date when="--04-26">April 26</date> to <date when="--05-08">May 8</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">PHILADELPHIA PRINT CLUB</item>
<item>1614 Latimer Street</item>
<item>A Loan Exhibition of Drawings and Prints by James McBey from the Collection of H. Kynett. <date when="--04-18">April 18</date>&#x2013;<date when="--05-07">May 7</date>. 15th Annual Exhibition of American Etching. <date when="--04-09">April 9</date>&#x2013;<date when="--05-21">May 21</date>.</item>
<item>Work by Junior Members. <date when="--05-02">May 2</date>&#x2013;21.</item>
<item rend="list-head">SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL ART</item>
<item>Broad and Pine Streets.</item>
<item>Illustrated Books and Graphic Arts of the Soviet Union. <date when="--04-01">April 1</date>&#x2013;16.</item>
<item>Crafts by Members of the Alumni Association. <date when="--04-21">April 21</date> to <date when="--05-07">May 7</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">SESSLER&#x2019;S</item>
<item>1310 Walnut St.</item>
<item>Portraits in Oil by Isaac Rader. <date when="--04-01">April 1</date>&#x2013;15.</item>
<item rend="list-head">SETTLEMENT MUSIC SCHOOL</item>
<item>Broad and Spruce Sts.</item>
<item>Annual Exhibition to <date when="--04-30">April 30</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">WARWICK GALLERIES</item>
<item>2022 Walnut Street</item>
<item>Contemporary Oil Paintings.</item>
<item rend="list-head">WOMENS&#x2019; CITY CLUB</item>
<item>1622 Locust Street</item>
<item>Oils by Arrah Lee Gaul. Through April.</item>
<item rend="list-head">WOMEN&#x2019;S UNIVERSITY CLUB</item>
<item>Warwick Hotel, 17th &amp; Locust Sts.</item>
<item>Paintings by John Folinsbee. <date when="--04-02">April 2</date>&#x2013;30.</item>
<item rend="list-head">Y. M. &amp; Y. W. H. A.</item>
<item>Broad and Pine Streets</item>
<item>Students Exhibit. <date when="--04-27">April 27</date> to <date when="--05-09">May 9</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">ZECKWER HAHN MUSICAL ACADEMY</item>
<item>1617 Spruce St.</item>
<item>Drawings and Paintings by Nat Koffman. <date when="--04-04">April 4</date>&#x2013;25.</item>
</list>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-12">
<head>SPANISH WAR PAINTINGS TO BE SHOWN</head>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig343.jpg"/>
<head>&#x201C;Catalan Soldier&#x201D; drawing by Luis Quintanilla</head>
</figure>
<p>Luis Quintanilla, artist of the war in Spain, will have a showing of his water colors at the Philadelphia Art Alliance from <date when="--04-26">April 26th</date> to <date when="--05-08">May 8th</date>.</p>
<p>Sr. Quintanilla&#x2019;s early career, including parental opposition, the grand tour, the slow growth of recognition, followed the general pattern associated with artists. But he was a Spaniard and a Basque. He could not remain indifferent to the political convulsions of his country. And so, in the spring of 1930, at the very hour when Alfonso was deciding to leave the throne, Quintanilla was one of the crowd standing in the plaza in front of the palace. It was an orderly crowd but the civil guard was drawn up before the palace gates and their rifles were ready. The king was still in the palace and no one knew what was going to happen until Quintanilla climbed up the wall to a balcony and unfurled a great Republican flag. Fortunately, the issue had already been decided within the palace and the civil guard was given no orders to fire, so the bloodshed, which was so near, did not occur.</p>
<p>For Quintanilla, one of the results of this exploit was a commission to paint the murals in University City, that City planned as a grandiose monument to education but destined to become a series of battered fortresses. Quintanilla&#x2019;s murals could be compared with the murals in Rockefeller Center, for his subject was the life of his country, the sowers, the laborers, the tenders of machines, the teachers, the scientists, painted into the walls with the firmness of color and design of an artist unpreoccupied with self.</p>
<p>He threw himself so unreservedly into the struggle on the side of the Spanish Government and was so reckless in battle that the government, feeling his life as an artist was too valuable to be lost, restrained him by putting him into diplomatic work. Nevertheless he was able to visit all the fronts and his exhibition consists of over a hundred drawings done for the most part either under fire or at the scene of an air raid. They range from the defense of Madrid at the opening of the war, through the Toledo, Jarama and Belchite campaign, to the operations around Teruel last January. Taken together, they form a complete picture of the war up to now, from the Loyalist side. The collection is probably unique in the world, for the drawings of military action have been actually done from life.</p>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig344.jpg"/>
</figure>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig345.jpg"/>
</figure>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-13">
<head>COLLECTORS OF AMERICAN ART TO HOLD CLIMAX SHOW</head>
<p>Bringing to a successful close its first season of activity, the Collectors of American Art, Inc., a noncommercial organization to &#x201C;encourage the production and distribution of fine art in America,&#x201D; will open its last exhibition before the annual membership drawing on <date when="--04-06">April 6</date>. Due to the large number of entries it was decided to hold this exhibition in more spacious quarters at 5 East 57th Street, New York, rather than at the organization&#x2019;s headquarters, 38 West 57th Street. The annual drawing will take place early in May.</p>
<p>As under the old Art Union, paintings have been purchased by the collectors from the two earlier exhibitions for distribution by lot to the members. To date the following paintings have been purchased for this purpose:</p>
<p>&#x201C;Head of a Girl&#x201D; by Stephen Ronay; &#x201C;Detroit Rooftops&#x201D; by the Michigan artist, Harold Stockburger; &#x201C;Bouquet&#x201D; by Martha Simpson; and &#x201C;New York Skyline&#x201D; by James Lechay. From the April exhibition several other paintings will be purchased and held in trust for lucky members.</p>
<p>Among those members whose numbers do not win one of the paintings, original prints by Reginald Marsh and Stow Wengenroth will be distributed&#x2014;so that each member will receive one work of art. The Marsh is an etching entitled &#x201C;Locomotive Watering;&#x201D; The Wengenroth is a lithograph entitled &#x201C;Early Summer.&#x201D; Since each print is limited to an edition of 100 signed impressions other plates will be purchased.</p>
<p>THE CHESTER COUNTY ART ASSOCIATION, at a meeting <date when="--04-05">April 5</date>, set the opening date for its annual exhibition as <date when="--05-28">May 28</date>. The private view will be held that afternoon and the annual banquet that evening. Henry White Taylor was appointed Chairman of the Exhibition Committee, by Dr. Christian Brinton, who presided.</p>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig346.jpg"/>
</figure>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig347.jpg"/>
</figure>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-14">
<head>NO TRUCE YET</head>
<p>Strong opposition to the Pepper-Coffee bill brought forth a tentative counter-proposal for a Federal Bureau of the Fine Arts which was published in full in the Philadelphia Art News of <date when="--03-14">March 14</date>.</p>
<p>At a meeting of Affiliated Art Heads of Philadelphia at the Academy of the Fine Arts on <date when="--03-10">March 10</date>, this tentative proposal was assigned to a committee for analysis. The committee found that the Bureau as proposed would be expensive and cumbersome, would not be free of politics, and would tend to continue Government subsidy of art projects to the detriment of art as a whole. The committee concludes that &#x201C;this bill contains much that is questionable if not dangerous and we advise against its being introduced at this time.&#x201D;</p>
<p>We judge from this that a truce cannot yet be called between the proponents and opponents of the Federal Arts Bureau idea.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-15">
<head>GERMANTOWN ART LEAGUE TO HOLD SHOW</head>
<p>The Art League of Germantown announces its Sixth Annual Exhibition of oils, water colors, and sculpture for two weeks from <date when="--05-09">May 9</date> to <date when="--05-22">May 22</date>, inclusive.</p>
<p>The exhibition will be the first held in the Art League&#x2019;s new headquarters at &#x201C;Vernon,&#x201D; the recently restored John Wister house in Vernon Park, Germantown.</p>
<p>The exhibition is open to all artists of the Germantown and Chestnut Hill area. Information can be obtained from the exhibition chairman, George Lear, Rit. 3500.</p>
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<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig348.jpg"/>
</figure>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-16">
<head><pb n="4" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-12-4.jpg"/>THUMB TACKS</head>
<head type="sub">COMMERCIAL ART NOTES</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> P<hi rend="small-caps">ETE</hi> B<hi rend="small-caps">OYLE</hi></byline>
<p>When Charlie O&#x2019;Connell, the RCA Executive, was decorated by the French Government for his sympathetic interest in French music, he joined forces with Ed Smith, the hat-needing etcher. They repaired to one of the finest beverage booths in town and proceeded to celebrate. Late that evening they discovered through the Scotch mist that they had forgotten to visit the French Consuls and claim the decoration. Vive la old-fashioned.</p>
<p>We have to shed a tear for an old studio pal of ours. Two months ago after a flush period of work he turned in his old crate and paid several hundred down on a new Ford. He hasn&#x2019;t done a dime&#x2019;s worth of work since.</p>
<p>A convivial friend of ours had a great deal of fun in a popular estaminet by introducing boyish Bill Jepson, A.D. of Franklin Printing as his son.</p>
<p>Some of the biggest mags these past few issues have been especially rich in cartoons by some of the local lads. Bo Brown has been crashing the Post and Colliers with happy frequency and Johnny Rosol&#x2019;s pudgy cats are using their faultless feline teamwork and never failing to get a chuckle.</p>
<p>Ed Shenton has three beautiful black and whites in the New York Times Book Review of <date when="--04-03">April 3rd</date>. They represent some of the best examples of his highly individual and sensitive style and are a part of a group of illustrations for &#x201C;The Yearling&#x201D; by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, published by Scribners.</p>
<p>There&#x2019;s an interesting story behind Reddy Kilowatt, the trademark of the Philadelphia Electric Company. Symbol of light and the efficiency of electric service he is the brain child and sole property of a gentleman named Ash Collins. While working for a southern utility he conceived the idea of a fitting pictorial expression that would typify electricity in all its branches. He contacted an artist and after a great deal of revision Reddy was born. His owner had no trouble selling him down the river for a generous royalty. At present the ubiquitous little fellow is capering for no less than seventy utilities. He gets around too, for we find him speaking Spanish and Portuguese in South America. Collins is reported eyeing the European market for his little protege. He keeps a staff of twenty people, including artists busy in Birmingham, Alabama. Reddy is drawn locally by free-lance Ned Steel of Willow Grove, who is probably the only local artist who had the pleasure of doing art work for years in the salubrious climate of the Hawaiian Islands.</p>
<p>Harry Deese of the Aitkin Kynett art department, whose hobby is boxers, had the time of his life last week when a local banquet drew a bevy of ring greats to this city. He saw his idol, the great Battling Nelson after a lapse of many years, and in an atmosphere that fairly bloomed in cauliflower, entertained a group of quondam ringsters in his apartment. He was a little puzzled as to whether or not it would be proper to throw some resin on the floor.</p>
<p>Allan Wallower and his studio side-kick Frank Smith are collaborating on a series of ads for the Bell Telephone Co. Allen is doing the layouts and lettering, while Frank is doing nicely by the figure work.</p>
<p>The proprietors of the Pirate Ship on South Camac Street report that Bill Pollock, the Washington Square satyr, stayed out of the place one night last week.</p>
<p>We are loath to admit the morbid fact that business just isn&#x2019;t. Talking with some of the free lances brings out the rocky state of our erratic calling. The only lively thing about is the mercurial habit of business to do the things it shouldn&#x2019;t. A big agency in town has laid off a flock of people with heavy casualties in the art department. Depression or recession, we&#x2019;re definitely against it.</p>
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<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig352.jpg"/>
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</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-17">
<head>AGENCY LISTING</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> C<hi rend="small-caps">HARLES</hi> M. B<hi rend="small-caps">OLAND</hi></byline>
<p>Starting where we left off <date when="--02-28">February 28</date>, we find ourselves in the Drexel Building and here is:</p>
<p>COX and TANZ. Mr. Cox will see you.</p>
<p>CARTER-THOMSON. This is at 1420 Walnut, and Mr. O&#x2019;Keefe is the gentleman to ask for.</p>
<p>H. M. DITMAN. Morris Building, 1421 Chestnut St.; Mr. Ditman is the person to see.</p>
<p>HARRY FEIGENBAUM. You&#x2019;ll go to the Widener Building on this one; Mr. Mullins is art director.</p>
<p>JEROME B. GRAY. P.S.F.S. is the building; Mr. Fry is the gentleman to see.</p>
<p>J. M. KORN. This is at 1528 Walnut Street and Mr. Devine will see you.</p>
<p>PHILIP KLEIN. Mr. Greenfield will see you and he&#x2019;s at 1420 Walnut St.</p>
<p>ALBERT KIRCHER. This also is a P.S.F.S. agency; Mr. Fitzpatrick will look at your work.</p>
<p>MAY ADVERTISING. Mr. McInnes sees you here and the place is 1516 Chestnut.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-18">
<head>TRICKS OF THE TRADE</head>
<p>Handsome reproductions, mostly of drawings, of old and modern masters, have been issued in folios at $3.50 and $5.00 by Braun et Cie, France, and are available at a local art supply shop.</p>
<p>Special! Fitted sketch boxes, 12x16, $7.00. Other summer painting outfits can be had for oils, watercolors, and pastels in various sizes, qualities and prices.</p>
<p>Q I Cutawl is a small edition of the Standard Cutawl and costs much less (110&#x2013;120 volt, $65). Starts cutting anywhere&#x2014;no need to bore a hole. The work is stationery&#x2014;Q I moves over it freely. Cuts designs any size in anything from paper and cloth to sheet steel. Portable. (Q I is 91/4x63/4x61/8 and weighs 81/2 lbs.) Safe. There&#x2019;s never been a serious accident to a Cutawl operator. Illuminates the work with protected light.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-19">
<head>MOORE STUDENT WINS CONTEST</head>
<p>Theresa di Marco, student in the third year illustration class of the Moore Institute, took first prize of $50 in the recent poster contest sponsored by the Reading Railroad Company. The competition, centering around the famous streamlined Reading train, was open to all art school students in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.</p>
<p>Miss di Marco also won the prize for the school poster on the Beggars&#x2019; Market, and was one of the five students recently selected to go on a study trip to New York, the expenses of which were paid by the Alumni Association of the Institute.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-20">
<head>STYLES IN WALLPAPER</head>
<p>The Wallpaper Style Show, held last week at the Ritz-Carlton, vividly reflected trends and methods in contemporary decoration. New types of washable papers, bamboo borders, the popular decor of elegance, simulated wood squares&#x2014;these were among the new notes introduced.</p>
<p>One of the most unusual papers was that designed for a man&#x2019;s study or sporting room. Old sporting scenes, such as the first golf match played at St. Andrew&#x2019;s were copied from Metropolitan Museum prints, originally done by Aikens about 1825.</p>
<p>RONALD HOWER, School of Industrial Arts student, won the first prize of $50 in the recent poster contest for &#x201C;May Day at the Zoo.&#x201D; Hower&#x2019;s design showed two elephants very amusingly doing The Big Apple. The prize was presented at the Art Alliance by Mrs. S. S. White, 3d., chairman of the poster committee.</p>
<p>In conjunction with the current &#x201C;Exhibition of Contemporary Russian Graphic Art,&#x201D; on view at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Arts, Dr. Christian Brinton gave an illustrated lecture on &#x201C;Art in the Soviet Union,&#x201D; <date when="--04-06">April 6</date>, in the Lecture Room of the School.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-21">
<head>INDUSTRIAL ART GRADS TO SHOW CRAFTS</head>
<p>The Alumni Association of the School of Industrial Art will hold its annual exhibition <date when="--04-21">April 21</date> to <date when="--05-07">May 7</date> in the exhibition gallery of the School. Due to space limitations, the show this year will be limited to crafts. Portraiture and landscape will be featured in next year&#x2019;s exhibition.</p>
<p>The term crafts, however, is being broadly interpreted to include practically anything from glass to advertising designs. And to add further interest to the show, the actual development of each entry will be illustrated. An advertising design, for example, will show side by side, the original sketches, preliminary drawings, and all the intermediate steps to the finished reproduction as published.</p>
<p>John R. Sinnock, designer of coins for the United States Mint, Parke Edwards, well known for his metal work, Richard T. Dooner, photographer, W. Lambdin, art director, and Ralph Pallen Coleman, illustrator, will compose the jury.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-22">
<head>ALUMNI HOLD GYPSY FROLIC</head>
<p>The Annual Alumni Ball of the Industrial Art School was held on Friday, <date when="--04-08">April 8</date>, in the Rose Room of the Bellevue-Stratford. The theme was a Romany Romp.</p>
<p>Music was supplied by Jerry Goffreda. A dance group under the supervision of Irene Lingo Tungate executed a gypsy dance, while an original play was presented, a take-off on Carmen, featurng Ferdinand the Bull. John Obold held forth as king of the Gypsies, doubling for Carmen&#x2019;s pappy in the play. Others in the skit were Lela Morton, Louise Yerkes, Robert Limber, Robert Yerkes, and Charles Boland.</p>
<p>ALFRED SCHMIDT, who deserted the Philadelphia free lance field last year to work for the Bureau of Engraving in Washington, came home on <date when="--04-01">April 1</date> (no fooling) to be married. His charming bride, the former Miss Louise Maddex, is an lowan and also employed in the Bureau. The couple celebrated by attending the Sketch Club Ladies&#x2019; Night, where many of Smitty&#x2019;s old friends were on hand to congratulate him. The Schmidts will live in Cherrydale, Virginia.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-23">
<head><pb n="5" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-12-5.jpg"/>AN ANSWER FROM THE W. P. A.</head>
<p>Ed. The following list of exhibitions was submitted to us by a member of the administration of the Federal Art Project as a partial answer to the widespread criticism of the local W. P. A.</p>
<list>
<item rend="list-head">EXHIBITION SCHEDULE (Incomplete) PAST EXHIBITIONS SINCE <date when="1938-01-01">JAN. 1, 1938</date></item>
<item>Pennsylvania Museum of Art, <date when="--01-22">Jan. 22</date>&#x2013;<date when="--02-27">Feb. 27</date>.</item>
<item>Edward W. Bok Vocational School, <date when="--03-08">Mar. 8</date>&#x2013;<date when="--03-22">Mar. 22</date>. (Water Colors).</item>
<item>Fleisher Vocational School, <date when="--03-15">Mar. 15</date>&#x2013;<date when="--03-22">Mar. 22</date>. (Prints).</item>
<item>Sleighton Farms School, <date when="--03-14">Mar. 14</date>&#x2013;<date when="--04-07">April 7</date>. (Posters).</item>
<item>South Philadelphia Girls&#x2019; High School, <date when="--03-14">Mar. 14</date>&#x2013;<date when="--03-25">Mar. 25</date>. (Prints).</item>
<item>Central High School, <date when="--03-24">Mar. 24</date>&#x2013;<date when="--04-06">April 6</date>. (Prints).</item>
<item>University of Penna. Exhibition of prints and posters during Schoolmen&#x2019;s Week.</item>
<item rend="list-head">CURRENT EXHIBITIONS</item>
<item>International Institute (Oils).</item>
<item>Lansdowne Public Schools. (Posters).</item>
<item>Edward W. Bok Vocational School. (Posters).</item>
<item>Pennsylvania State College. (Group of paintings, drawings, prints).</item>
<item>Germantown High School. (Prints).</item>
<item>National Youth Administration (Y. W. C. A.) (Prints and water colors).</item>
<item rend="list-head">FORTHCOMING PRINT EXHIBITIONS AT THE FOLLOWING SCHOOLS</item>
<item>Tilden Junior High School.</item>
<item>Overbrook High School.</item>
<item>Shoemaker Junior High School.</item>
<item>Sulzberger Junior High School.</item>
<item>Bartlett Junior High School.</item>
<item>Edward Bok Vocational School.</item>
<item>Northeast High School.</item>
<item>Gillespie Junior High School.</item>
<item>Gratz High School.</item>
<item>Fitzsimons Junior High School.</item>
</list>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-24">
<head>DA VINCI ALLIANCE</head>
<p>The Da Vinci Alliance&#x2019;s last monthly meeting of this season will be held at Pardi&#x2019;s Studio, 10 S. 18th St., on Friday, <date when="--05-06">May 6</date>. It will be devoted to &#x201C;Cinema as a Hobby.&#x201D;</p>
<p>Outstanding amateurs and members of the Alliance, among them Ripley Bugbee, President of the Philadelphia Cinema League, Albert Robuschi, President of the Banca Commerciale Italiana, and Magistrate Charles Amodei, will show their latest films.</p>
<p>At the April meeting Honorary President Nicola D&#x2019;Ascenzo gave a revealing illustrated talk on the folk art of Sicily and Theodore Dillaway showed movies of a Canadian trip and talked at length on the habits of wild life in Canada.</p>
<p>STUDENTS of the Pardi Art Classes will hold an exhibition of their work at Pardi&#x2019;s Studio the week beginning Monday, <date when="--05-02">May 2</date>.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-25">
<head>PLASTIC CLUB RECALLS PAST</head>
<p>Reminiscence was the theme of the Plastic Club tea of <date when="--03-30">March 30</date>, for under the direction of Mrs. Robert J. Hunter, head of the Library Committee, a lively series of talks, involving the past, present and future of this, the first women&#x2019;s art club in the United States, was given.</p>
<p>Informally sketching the history of the organization, its formation and activities, Mrs. Hunter told of its founding in 1897. In March of that year, a group of prominent women artists, among them Cecelia Beaux, Harriet Sartain, Violet Oakley and Jessie Wilcox Smith, banded together in a room of the Fuller Building to form the first recognized association of women artists. In 1898 they held an exhibition of color work&#x2014;the beginning of a long line of annual shows. The civic activities of the Club, their war work, such as camouflaging ships, the honors awarded to members, annual outings&#x2014;all were touched upon in this review of the Plastic Club&#x2019;s past.</p>
<p>As an addition to this account, Mrs. Walter Hering recalled former Rabbits, telling amusing stories of &#x201C;Oriental Nights&#x201D; and showing a fascinating set of old photographs.</p>
<p>As though proving that the future of the Plastic Club is to be no less noteworthy than its past, Miss A. Margaretta Archambault spoke about her and the Plastic Club&#x2019;s work in promoting rotary exhibitions.</p>
<p>The Annual Sketch Class Exhibition of the Plastic Club will be opened with a private view, <date when="--04-13">April 13</date> at 4:00 p.m. Mrs. John H. Gunter, Chairman, will be assisted by Mrs. Walter Greenwood, Mrs. Oliver W. McDowell, Mrs. Joseph W. Winter, Miss Margaret M. Welsh, hostesses, and Augusta H. Peoples, Chairman of the Exhibition Committee.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-26">
<head>B. M. A. C.</head>
<p>At the Annual Meeting of the Business Men&#x2019;s Art Club, held on <date when="--03-14">March 14</date>, the following officers were elected: President, William P. Lear; Vice-President, William J. Henderson; Secretary, George Lear; Treasurer, Paul R. Loos; Members of Executive Committee, Francis B. Hall, Theodore K. Gramm, Oswald Chew, and Karl Sevard.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-27">
<head>ABOUT ARTISTS</head>
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<head>&#x201C;Portrait of an Artist&#x201D; Photograph by Charles Ogle</head>
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<p>ELIOT O&#x2019;HARA, Philadelphia artist, is holding a retrospective exhibition, subtitled &#x201C;Ten Years of Water Color Painting,&#x201D; at the Argent Galleries, New York City, through <date when="--04-16">April 16</date>. Mr. O&#x2019;Hara, known here as a distinguished painter, is instructor in water color at the School of Industrial Art.</p>
<p>H. WILLARD ORTLIP, and his wife Aimee E. Ortlip will exhibit their paintings at the Studio Guild, New York, from <date when="--04-11">April 11</date> to 23. Mr. Ortlip has resided in Philadelphia for twenty-five years and is well known as a portrait painter.</p>
<p>HENRIETTE WYETH, member of the very well known artist family of Chadds Ford, is holding a one man show, &#x201C;Paintings and Portraits,&#x201D; at the Reinhardt Galleries, New York City until <date when="--04-16">April 16</date>.</p>
<p>ANDREW WYETH, young Chadds Ford painter, attains a still wider recognition through the reproduction of five of his Maine water colors in the April issue of Scribner&#x2019;s Magazine.</p>
<p>An exhibition of sculpture by Cornelia A. Van Chapin is on view at the Fifteen Gallery, New York City, until <date when="--04-16">April 16</date>.</p>
<p>THE TWENTY-SECOND EXHIBITION of art by members of the Ceramic League of Philadelphia was held at the Plastic Club on <date when="--04-08">April 8</date>. Tea was served from two until six.</p>
<p>The <date when="--04-07">April 7</date> meeting of the Miniature Camera Club, held at the Engineers Club, had as its main feature a talk by Richard R. Frame, photographer for Gimbel Bros. Store. Mr. Frame spoke on &#x201C;Illustrative Photography, and Some of Its Problems.&#x201D;</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-28">
<head>PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> R<hi rend="small-caps">HODES</hi> R. S<hi rend="small-caps">TABLEY</hi></byline>
<p>Head of English Department Radnor High School</p>
<p>It is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that laymen are taking a livelier interest in education today than at any time in national history. Meetings such as those recently held at Atlantic City have attracted the scrutiny and the comments of non-professional observers to an extent which is amazing to teachers who have accustomed themselves to thinking that affairs of education are dull stuff to the general mind. Interest is especially sharp on controversial issues which appear to be dividing educators into hostile camps.</p>
<p>Shades of the modernist fundamental conflict in religion of the last decade! We have the old forces at work socking each other in the same old way but in a different terrain. In education it is the liberal against the conservative, the Progressives against the Essentialists. Dorothy Thompson in a recent article professed to see in this hostile alignment the rising of a revolt of the parents&#x2014;together with many teachers&#x2014;against the fads and frills, the ineptitudes and absurdities of &#x201C;progressive&#x201D; education. Children are not being taught manners or morals, arithmetic or spelling, history or punctuation; they will do nothing they do not wish to do, they rarely do well the things they wish to do, and they usually wish to do only the things that are easy.</p>
<p>As a teacher in one of these so-called progressive schools I am, of course, convinced of the rightness of the progressive ideology. Far be it from me to define this ideology for the satisfaction of anyone in or out of the schools. But from the welter of words, ideas, principles, and concepts emerges one central fact about the Progressive movement which no one can honestly deny: it is a movement designed to help teachers and administrators &#x201C;get at&#x201D; the individual child in order to give him the help he needs. It is spurred on by the conviction that the old methods under which we adults were trained did little to discover the individual and less to assist him. It is convinced that head cramming, group drills, the A-B-C-D-E marking system, uniform requirements for all, and uniform standards for all are usually more effective in concealing a lad than in revealing him; it does not swallow and digest the old assumption that knowledge of facts means virtue in action and thinking. On the positive side it simply says: find out about the youngster&#x2014;his attitudes, abilities, and interests; then help him to live and grow as a person in a world of his fellows. If there is anything undemocratic, communistic, or &#x201C;subversive&#x201D; in this doctrine, the burden of proof is on its critics.</p>
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<head>ON THE SPOT</head>
<head type="sub">SAGA OF A CAMERATEER</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> C<hi rend="small-caps">HARLES</hi> O<hi rend="small-caps">GLE</hi></byline>
<div>
<head>VII</head>
<p>Another brush with the French police occurred one time when I was working on a feature story with pictures of Parisian night life in Montmartre and Montparnasse. The spectacle of gargons de caf&#xE9; or agents de police propelling a struggling and usually tipsy caf&#xE9; girl from the bar to the curb was a not infrequent real life picture. But it always happened when I was minus my camera. I decided to stage this myself in the interest of the series and I looked around for a likely habituee of the Quarter who might be persuaded to be thrown out of a cafe for Art&#x2019;s sake . . . and a hundred francs. There was a girl whom I shall call Mickey, because that is not her name, and who I shall say came from Holland because that is where she came from. I was agreeably surprised to find her falling in with the idea quite enthusiastically. We took a table on the fringe of a popular and crowded Montparnasse cafe, ordered a couple of Pernods, and endeavoured to bribe a waiter or two, who knew Mickey, to do their strongarm stuff. They were not to be cajoled, however, so we finished our drinks and I offered my companion the francs anyway. She ordered another Pernod, looked at me and said, &#x201C;Do you want to get that picture?&#x201D;</p>
<p>&#x201C;Yes,&#x201D; I said.</p>
<p>&#x201C;Then get out there to the curb. Keep your camera out of sight, and watch me.&#x201D; A game gal, that. I got into a taxi at the curb. The top was down and I opened the camera in the bottom of the tonneau.</p>
<p>Mickey finished her drink calmly, and then reached over to a neighboring table, snatched the hat from the head of an astonished American, removed the hatband and threw the hat into the street. A couple of tables and chairs followed the hat with magnificent abandon. The Caf&#xE9; terrace was in an instant uproar. People were on their feet, standing on chairs and table tops to watch and cheer as Mickey really warmed up to her work. Waiters dashed forward.</p>
<p>&#x201C;Call a couple of cops,&#x201D; said the embattled lady, &#x201C;I want to be arrested.&#x201D; With that she coolly hurled another chair across the pavement. Her gestures were grand. A blue-coated policeman shouldered his way through the crowd. The waiters were nonplussed.</p>
<p>&#x201C;One policeman&#x2019;s not enough to arrest me.&#x201D; Mickey declared indignantly.</p>
<p>That&#x2019;s why French agents de police generally travel in pairs; it is beneath Gallic personal dignity to submit to arrest by one man. Two police, of course, outnumber one and individual pride is thus preserved.</p>
<p>Another agent appeared and they obligingly dragged their dramatically struggling prisoner to the curb while the camera clicked. There they good-naturedly let her free, but I saw too late, as I pulled her into my cab, that one of them had spotted my camera. He tumbled to the trick at once as my chauffeur stepped on the gas, and they both promptly stepped on the running-board and directed the driver to the nearest police station, which happened to be just around the corner. There we were hailed before the Commissaire who demanded to know what it was all about. I exhibited my press card and explained that I was merely taking a shot for a series of night life pictures. He examined my passport and carte d&#x2019;identitie and after assuring him that my pictures and article intended no disrespect to the French police I was permitted to go. Not so Mickey. Unfortunately she did not have her passport or identity card with her and stayed in durance vile while I scouted around to find her papers and effected her release. The French police are invariably charming to foreigners and blessed as a rule with a keen sense of humor, but visiting firemen had best be possessed of their papers.</p>
<p>(<emph>To be continued</emph>)</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-30">
<head><pb n="6" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-12-6.jpg"/>ART IN PRINT</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> B<hi rend="small-caps">EN</hi> W<hi rend="small-caps">OLF</hi></byline>
<p>Three cheers for Walt Kuhn for preserving the story of the Armory Show for future generations. Mr. Kuhn, who was executive secretary of the exhibition, has told the story of that momentous show in a little pamphlet dedicated to the American artist of the future. Lucidly written, it explains the conditions that led up to the show as well as the concrete results. Plans for the exhibition sent Mr. Kuhn to Germany, Holland, France and England where he collected pertinent examples of the great moderns of the day. Mr. Kuhn modestly gives much of the credit for the Armory Show&#x2019;s phenomenal success to the great American painter, Arthur B. Davies, who, Mr. Kuhn tells us, financed most of the exhibition from his own pocket.</p>
<p>As many of us know, the exhibition was held in the 165th Regiment Infantry Building in New York. The examples of art it fostered gave America its first opportunity to view the work of such men as Matisse, Dufy, Van Gogh. In large measure it was responsible for the purchase of a Cezanne by the Metropolitan Museum. Following its tremendous success in New York, the show went to Chicago where it enjoyed similar enthusiasm, and then to Boston where it was not so happily received.</p>
<p>The author attributes much of the modernity of design of our present apparel, automobiles, aeroplanes, etc. to the influence of that eye-opening exhibition of 1913. We understand that this pamphlet is not for sale, but we suspect that Mr. Kuhn would be only too glad to forward you a copy as he did your reviewer, who wrote to him at 112 E. 18th St., New York City, enclosing postage.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-12-chapter-31">
<head>PAINT-CRAFT</head>
<head type="sub">CRAFTSMANSHIP OF FINE ARTS PAINTING</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> F. W. W<hi rend="small-caps">EBER</hi></byline>
<p>Another red lake pigment, perhaps one of the oldest dye-stuffs known, is Kermes. It is said to have been used as a dye in the time of Moses. Pliny, A. D. 77, calls it &#x201C;coccigranum&#x201D; and speaks of it as greatly valued in the days of the Roman Empire as a dye-stuff. The Venetian Scarlet of the Middle Ages was also obtained from Kermes. The pigments prepared from it in ancient times were usually precipitated on a base of chalk or gypsum and consequently appear more opaque than the modern transparent alumina base lakes. This deep crimson coloring matter of yellowish-red hue is a product of the insect Coccus Ilicis, resembling the Cochineal, the source of the rich and brilliant Carmine since about 1500 A. D. The Kermes Red and Carmine do not show the desirable stability of the Madder Lakes.</p>
<p>Another rather dull deep red lake pigment in use, at this time, was Lac Lake. It and Kermes were almost entirely displaced by the introduction of the more permanent Madder Lakes.</p>
<p>Dragon&#x2019;s Blood, a deep red-brown colored resin, was called &#x201C;Cinnabar&#x201D; by the ancients and was also mentioned by Pliny in his natural history. It is now used principally as a coloring for lacquers, varnishes, toilet articles, etc., but seldom as an artist&#x2019;s color. It exudes from wounds made in the bark of an Asiatic tree. The color, although rather fugitive under prolonged direct sunlight exposure, was principally valued for glazing.</p>
<p>From the very earliest times, prehistoric man made use of the prehistoric man made use of the natural red earths for purposes of decoration. These red ochres were selected for their beauty of color, ranging from cool bluish to warm yellowish reds. Early reference in ancient Grecian and Roman times was made to particularly bright varieties under the names Rubics and Sinopis.</p>
<p>It is very confusing to trace the history of some of the early pigments. For instance, Sinopis is sometimes described in early manuscripts as an especially bright red ochre. Again, we find the natural mineral &#x201C;cinnabar&#x201D; also given this name. Dragon&#x2019;s Blood also appears under the name &#x201C;cinnabar&#x201D;. Pliny refers correctly to vermilion as &#x201C;minium&#x201D;, which name is now given to red lead.</p>
<p>(<emph>To be continued</emph>)</p>
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<head>THEODORE DILLAWAY HONORED IN BOSTON</head>
<p>A former Philadelphia Art Teacher, Dorothy Oldach, now Supervisor of Art in the Schools of Bernardsville, N. J., delivered a lecture <date when="--04-08">April 8</date>, at the Vesper George School, Boston, Massachusetts on the Palettes of Contemporary American Painters. Her talk attracted many of the Art Teachers attending the Eastern Arts Convention which was being held in Boston at that time.</p>
<p>Local artists whose palettes Miss Oldach projected in color on the screen are Theodore Dillaway, Director of Art Education, Philadelphia Schools, who is also a very talented painter, Yarnall Abbott and Henry Pitz whose palettes were reproduced in this paper <date when="--03-28">March 28</date>, Henry B. Snell, and others. Interesting in connection with this talk was the fact that Mr. Dillaway has been President of the Eastern Arts Association, as well as Director of Art in the Boston Schools in past years.</p>
<p>Miss Oldach is planning to give her talk to a number of Art Organizations, Museums, and Women&#x2019;s Clubs in the Philadelphia area, and those interested in this illustrated lecture may communicate with her at the Bernardsville High School.</p>
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Philadelphia Art News: Vol. 1 No. 12 Jonathan Edwards Center encoded by Scribe Inc. 9906 words Ben Wolf Publications, Inc. Philadelphia, Pa. Philadelphia Art News upl-01-12 ### Notes about the project or series Volume 1, Issue 12 of Philadelphia Art News, a bi-weekly arts journal in the 1930s November 10, 2013 view page image(s) PHILADELPHIA ART NEWS ALL THE NEWS OF PHILADELPHIA ART IMPARTIALLY REPORTED APRIL 11, 1938 Vol. 1 - - - No. 12 Ten Cents per Copy PHILADELPHIA ART NEWS Published every second Monday by BEN WOLF PUBLICATIONS, INC.
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PHOTOGRAPHS SHOWN AT DREXEL

An international exhibition of photography opens the new “gallery within a gallery”—a set of inner walls which can be dismantled when not in use—at the Drexel Institute of Technology. The gift of Edward P. Simon, the new museum device is used to advantage to display a splendid collection of over one hundred prints by American and foreign photographers.

Aside from the general excellence of the photographs, at least one other feature makes this exhibit unusually interesting, the display of the original print with the final enlargement, as in Dr. Clarence Kern’s study of a New England church. The comparison of the amount of detail in the two prints provides an illuminating commentary on the methods of the miniature cameraman. Again, in Dana Mitchell’s still life, onions rolled out of a bushel basket, it is of interest to note the improvement in composition made by cutting off a section of the negative.

Among exceptionally fine prints might be noted the skiing and snow scenes by Aldo Chiappero, Donald Miner’s series of sand patterns, the composition in water reflections by the Philadelphian, Alfred A. DeLardi, and the revealing portrait of Alfred Stieglitz, dean of American photographers, by William Hill Field.

This exhibition, lent through the courtesy of Carl Zeiss, Inc., is the first of a series planned by the Advisory Art Committee of the college, devised to meet particularly the needs of students and to relate art to contemporary industrial life. The members of the Art Committee are Edward P. Simon, architect, chairman; Nicola D’Ascenzo, artist and designer of stained glass; Samuel Yellin, artist and designer of wrought iron; and Dorothy Grafly, art critic and writer, who is curator of the Drexel Museum and Picture Gallery.

GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIPS AWARDED

Three Pennsylvanians are among the recipients of Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships in the field of art this year. Dr. Carl Schuster, assistant curator of Chinese Art at the Pennsylvania Museum was awarded a second Fellowship to pursue further his comparative study of Chinese folk art, while Ahron Ben-Shmuel, Upper Black Eddy, and Janet de Coux, Gibsonia, were given awards for creative work in sculpture.

CENTER PLAY

Commonly regarded as “Leftist” by the Conservatives of the Art World, the Federal Arts Committee has veered towards center in a statement made by Stevens Maxey, its Executive Secretary, in response to the tentative Federal Arts Bureau proposal published in the Philadelphia Art News of March 14. After a summary of the policy of the Committee Mr. Maxey says:

“In conclusion, if all sections of the Art World will get behind your suggestions for a democratic administration, etc., the Committee is prepared to whole-heartedly support it.

“Specifically . . . ‘An artist is one who is practicing as a vocation rather than as an avocation, one or more of the Arts.’

“The functions, powers and duties of the Bureau shall include no relief projects whatsoever. Persons now employed on the Projects sponsored by the WPA who are not found eligible under the Bureau of Fine Arts shall remain under the jurisdiction—of the Federal Relief Administration.

“The regional administration will be vested in advisory committees elected by all art organizations of 50 or more members, serving without compensation. The Advisory Committee will elect the regional committeemen, determine what persons qualify as Artists, and advise the regional administrations as to what projects shall be carried out in each region. These are your proposals. If the majority of artists and art organizations. (Fine Art’s Federation, etc.) will support these provisions you have outlined, the Federal Arts Committee will whole-heartedly accept them and work for their accomplishment.”

This offers an opportunity for an accord between the representative art groups of America. Undeniably the Pepper-Coffee proposal has hung a veil of suspicion between the Conservatives and any proposal for the establishment of a Federal Arts Bureau. Nevertheless it is conceivable that a Bureau could be created which would benefit art as a whole. This may be the time to do it if it is ever to be done. Can we, whether we be radical or conservative, swallow our distrust, concentrate on the idea at hand, join forces with all who are interested in art, and do the job?

If not, it seems probable that another 10 or 25 years will pass before art will make a major adjustment to the current enormous sociological and economic changes.

SETTLEMENT SCHOOL EXHIBITS

Matisse is reported to have said, after seeing an exhibition of children’s work, that he had no further desire to paint. The statement may be extreme, but certainly many artists, visiting the Settlement Music School’s Exhibition at Broad and Spruce Sts. will more than admire the free imagination in which the sculpture, drawings, and paintings in this show have been conceived.

Characterized by great strength and vitality, the sculpture displays a comprehensive knowledge of the structure and plasticity of the human figure. The little painted clay statuettes by the younger classes, the wood-carvings, the large figure pieces—all show a highly original manipulation of masses and planes. Typical of this truly creative spirit is a seated woman, expressing, through elongated forms, a deep weariness and dejection. Finished with a surface resembling that of turquoise bronze, this piece of sculpture achieves unusual unity of form and idea.

The oils, mostly by children of about ten years old, have a fresh, naive quality. With great honesty of approach, they objectify the child’s emotions and opinions concerning his own world. The eviction of a family, a group of bright-eyed children, factory workers—these are but a few of the subjects the children have creatively reworked into expressive and stimulating pictures.

This exhibition, arranged under the supervision of Antonio Cortizas, art teacher at the School, will be open to the public until April 30.

PARKWAY TO HAVE MARBLE FRANKLIN

Thirty tons of Benjamin Franklin, now being hewn in the Long Island studio of sculptor James Earle Frabier, will soon travel to Franklin’s home city to become the central figure of a huge Memorial at Franklin Institute. The heroic figure, three times life size, is being cut from separate pieces of marble which will be bolted together. A pantograph device, invented by Edmondo Quatrecchi and never before used on a statue in this country, is being employed in the carving.

President Roosevelt and many prominent scientists, statesmen, educators and industrialists are expected to attend the dedication ceremony on May 19.

ARTISTS TO HOLD BAL MASQUE

The Fourth Annual Bal Masque, under the auspices of the Artists Union, will be held at the Penn Athletic Club on Saturday, May 7. With the theme gone native—the motif is “Americana”—art circles are looking forward to the lampooning of persons, institutions and affairs American.

Louis Hirschman, famous for his caricatures of the noted and notorious, constructed of scraps of junk, five-and-ten-cent store articles and kitchen utensils, will design the decorations for this year’s affair. They will be three-dimensional scenes from American life with almost life-size figures representing persons of political, economic and social importance.

The “Americana” theme, however, is not compulsory. The Committee has given its assurance that no one will be refused admittance if he comes as Ghandi instead of an American figure.

EPISCOPAL HOST TO EXHIBITION

Sixteen schools of the Philadelphia area exhibited examples of work done in their art classes, in the gymnasium of the Episcopal Academy, City Line and Berwick Road on April 4th, 5th and 6th.

No attempt was made for comprehensive representation of the work of the art departments of these schools. Nevertheless the show was gay and stimulating, and bespeaks an excellent cooperative spirit between educators. The schools represented were: Germantown Academy, William Penn Charter, Miquon, Haverford, Shipley, Moorestown Friends’, Friends’ Select, Holman, Episcopal, Stevens, Baldwin, Westtown, Agnes Irwin, Haverford Friends’, Springside and Friend’s Central.

Mr. William Tefft Schwarz is head of the Art Department of Episcopal Academy.

FRESH PAINT
“The Hitch-Hiker” by Julius Bloch—Photograph by Chappel Studio
WELDON BAILEY

The artist is beset by more than one problem over which he has no control.

One of the most prominent is the flourishing art auction of today. The theory of the auction—the loot to the highest bidder—means generally an unworthy price, in fact a reasonable chance of getting an actual treasure for a song.

Bougereaus, Sullys and Morans have recently been auctioned for absurdly low sums of money, and the art-buying public’s reaction to such an experience is far from healthy for the modern artist.

Principally, it places in his none too rosy path an added obstacle—it furnishes his potential buyers with a reason for not buying from him. It may even force his prices to the auctioneer’s level. And, lastly, he must struggle all the harder for recognition.

The auctioneer is not the artists’s friend.

The idea of circulating picture clubs is likewise none too happy for the artist. At first consideration it may appear a boon, but deeper penetration reveals more than one flaw in its construction.

It may be argued that this plan enables an artist to attain greater recognition by means of the enlarged audience offered.

We do not believe that his audience is increased thereby, for subscribers to this plan are generally gallery-goers and would see the artist’s work in any case. While purchasers may be found in this manner, it is more likely to discourage purchasing, inasmuch as the painting finds its way into a home for a mere rental. And again, to many members, variety may be the spice of art.

The idea of a purchasing fund established by the club is admirable, so far as it goes. In fact, it is doubtless agreeable to many artists whose work has been sold. To the majority of artist-contributors, however, it means no return.

In a word, under the plan of a circulating picture club, the artist contributes his stock-in-trade, bears the brunt of its usage, and is paid nothing for it unless he be one of the few whose work has been purchased. Furthermore, the club collects dues from its members on the strength of his contributions. And it is inclined to reduce the purchasing inclination of its public.

This is obviously an inadequate system. The artist must in some way be reimbursed for his cooperation—possibly in point of royalties. Otherwise, most artist-members give all and receive naught.

The current exhibition of Contemporary Russian Graphic Arts at the School of Industrial Art, sponsored by the American Russian Institute, is not only a vital and stimulating show, but one of great variety of thought and treatment. Included are illustrated books (mostly highly imaginative and ingenious in design), educational posters (bearing the stamp of advanced graphic conception), wood cuts (black and white and in color), and photos of stage sets augmented by color prints of scenic and costume designs.

The last named should prove of extraordinary interest to all theatre-lovers. The photos reveal the sumptuous quality of modern Russian sets, and have been made at the Moscow Art Theatre, Vakhtangou Theatre and Kamering Theatre, among others. Fantasy and vivid design accentuate the color prints of theatrical costumes.

Much pictorial ingenuity and cleverness is to be found in the wood cuts. Vladimir Favorsky, that old pillar of Russian wood-cut—for whom we have tremendous admiration—is well represented with his wealth of forms and linear patterns so personal to himself, while Kravchenko and Sternberg take next place in point of technical excellence and individuality of composition.

The lithographs of Adolph Dehn, now at the Carlen Galleries, are as provocative as usual. One sees them and is sufficiently disturbed to return to them—excellent proof of a good print.

Judging by this show, the artist has two phases: delineation of character devoid of flattery, and a purely pictorial eye cast upon landscape.

In the former we find principally an uncompromising bitterness of approach to humanity and its foibles, interpreted with a highly individualized textural sense plus the ability to make a line say all the unpleasant things this artist thinks about people.

This approach is principally exemplified in such prints as “All for a Piece of Meat”, “We Speak English”, “Applause”, “Lohengrin” and “The Little Sinner”.

Dehn’s non-figure prints lean more than a little toward Japanesque pictorial thought, to which “Storm” and “Niagara Falls” bear ample testimony.

JANE RICHTER

Five Philadelphia artists inaugurate a new series of shows of inexpensively priced work at the Artists Union with a group exhibition of drawings, pastels and water colors. Lisa Langley presents a group of green landscapes in which the undulating hill and field scene is interpreted with a compact simplicity. Nat Koffman’s wash drawings attain a certain sculpturesque quality through emphasis on large rounded areas. Herschel Levit’s charcoal portraits for Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” amply express the fierceness and passion of their inspiration. Hubert Mesibov has contributed a group of very interesting water colors. Superficially chaotic, these paintings, in their very formlessness reveal a definite pattern. Abe Chanin’s water colors, many done during his recent study in Florida, use deep inner-glow colors with a certain fierceness of design.

Interesting as are the revelations of these five distinct personalities, the important point about this show would seem to be its purpose—to put living art within the reach of lower-income people. With prices ranging from $2 to $35, a vastly greater number of people will be able to afford original art works. In this particular show, the media chosen are in themselves inexpensive, thus making possible some profit as well as an altruistic gesture for the artist.

Competently executed and endowed with a quiet charm, Mary Butler’s oils and water colors, on view at Harcum Junior College, present landscapes and flower pieces of pleasing design and color. “River and Beach, Ogunquit,” a pattern of dark blue sea, the dark blue curve of the river, rocks, and flat, grey sand, and “Autumn in the Berkshires”, vertical cornstalks evenly spaced against a low blue mountain, are typical of her oils. In “Cathedral Crag—A Wet Day” the water color fully recreates the mist clinging to the peak. Color and form have a proper indefiniteness.

Jointly exhibiting with Miss Butler is Benton Spruance who shows a characteristically exciting group of lithographs, among them the familiar series “The People Work”, cross-sections of the labor of a great city. An artist steeped in the contemporary world, Spruance reshapes the matter and mood of his environment into organic relationships. “Road from the Shore” and “Highway Holiday,” terrifying visualizations of our mania for speed, repeat the madness of the theme in the long, sweeping distortions of machine and human forms.

Washed in light, John J. Dull’s oils and water colors, exhibited at 1525 Locust St., are a record of Philadelphia scenes. All the squares and green places, the skylines, the buildings and boulevards, have been noted down with an unfailing clarity of color and shape.

After seeing “Derelict”, an embittered portrait in the Y.M.H.A. show, one might have expected a far more radical Joseph Grossman than is revealed in his current exhibition at the Modern Galleries. Here are simply conceived landscapes and still lifes, painted with a texture and color range that suggest pastel. “The Lone Tree,” a single tree casting the shadow of noon in a field, focuses summer heat. “The Old Barn,” handled with less restraint and more vitality, convincingly portrays the rural scene.

In a group of fourteen oils at the Women City’s Club, Arrah Lee Gaul shows herself to be a painter in very clear, clean color. “Desert,” a composition in the varying colors of flat land areas accentuated by green patches of sage brush exemplifies both her methods and her point of view. This is not the death-bearing desert of O’Keefe, but merely a country of great stillness and tranquillity. It is with this mood that she composed the majority of canvases in the exhibition.

One of the finest of current exhibitions is John Folinsbee’s at the Women’s University Club. A very free painter, using strong color and composition Folinsbee gives a new and dramatic significance to the Pennsylvania landscape. “Dark Hollow Road” is typical of this approach. Against an overcast sky, rise great incandescent trees of fall, throwing deep shadows on a narrow road and little group of houses. The beauty here is sinister, man and the fragile buildings he erects being dwarfed by the immensity of the storm filled sky, the gold trees, and the hills.

Also included in this show are a group of delightful child portraits. Broadly painted and informally posed, they portray the inherent gravity and seriousness that young children possess in repose.

A painter of various but always definite ability is June Groff, showing oils and water colors at the A.C.A. Gallery. With methods ranging from the thick, almost paste-like application of paint in “Circus Performer,” to the very thinly laid-on color of “Smoky Mills” or “Fruit and Wine,” she reveals herself as still in the experimental stage, but with a consistently thorough understanding of whatever manner she employs.

“Smoky Mills” by June Groff

“Circus Performers,” turbulent both as to design and color; the lyrical “Smoky Mills” in greys, violets, and deep reds; the small flower picture “Anemones”—these are among the most satisfying canvases in the exhibition.

Julius Bloch’s one man show of oils at the Art Alliance is the exposition of a large-minded artist, who looks at men, white or colored, first as human beings, and then as members of a race. There is little essential difference between the portraits, “Hitchhiker,” a white youth, and “Stevedore,” a negro laborer; both are symbols of physical and mental exhaustion. The negro subjects who sat for the majority of canvases in this exhibit, were not painted for purposes of satire, or humor, or propaganda, but for themselves, as they possess dignity, and nobility.

Bloch often, of course, displays a very real bitterness toward social practice, as in “Lynching,” “Park Benches,” and “Prisoner,” but it is never mere incoherent protest. The personal feeling of the artist has been sufficiently objectified to make good art as well as good opinion. “Prisoners” is not the depiction of an isolated negro, but a comprehensive expression of imprisonment in the abstract.

A second one man show at the Art Alliance is that of Margaret Gest’s water colors and pastels. Miss Gest, as appears from this group of paintings, is an interpreter of mood and atmosphere, rather than of material fact. In “Rain and Cooler” we feel the ominous tenseness that precedes a summer storm; in “Dark Grove” the dominant theme is the mystery of this shadowed group of trees. “Rocks” a skillful combination of abstract forms, is shot through with an almost physical sensation of strain.

A group of abstractions, “The Four Seasons,” visualizes the varying themes of the year. Winter’s quiescence is seen through a horizontal design of greys and blacks; the growth of spring, in shooting points of blue; the ripeness of summer, in a revolving rose form; while the agitated red, black, and brown swirls of “Autumn” illustrate the “Pestilence stricken multitudes” of Shelley’s poem.

Replacing the all too prevalent blacks and browns of modern portraiture with light, clear colors, Isaac Rader shows a group of minutely detailed, smoothly painted portraits at Sessler’s. The subjects have been informally posed, usually in an interior setting that attempts to reflect their personalities. Mark Twain is shown in an early American kitchen, seated by a window framed in vines; Mrs. Rader, in a blue evening gown, stands in a carefully described living room. The final impression, however, is of a too great concentration on material surroundings, of a too great objectivity, rather than the intended interpretation of the “inner man.”

The less carefully planned water colors, especially the child portraits, have more spontaneity, and exhibit a more searching appraisal of the subjects.

The eleven artists exhibiting at the Y.M. & Y.W.H.A. have contributed a varied, and generally excellent, group of paintings. If there be a common denominator it is that of integrity, a quality equally apparent in Joe Hirsch’s satiric “Two Men” and in Hortense Ferne’s unfinished, but thoroughly charming “Portrait Study”.

Several of these eighteen paintings seem particularly outstanding. Henry Cooper’s “After the Rehearsal” previously shown in this year’s Academy Annual, reiterates a splendid realization of form and glowing color; “Reb Mnashe” a portrait by Samuel Salko, demonstrates the transmutation of pure emotion into art. Harry Zion’s “Back Bay,” soft blues and green seen through a summer haze, is one of the most satisfying of the landscapes.

Other exhibitors are: Stella Drabkin, Joseph Grossman, Isaac Lipschutz, Herman Rutman, Elizabeth Schupack, and Karl Sherman.

The Annual Exhibition of the Beta Gamma Sigma Sorority of the School of Industrial Art, on view at the Sketch Club, and embracing oils, water colors, pen and ink drawings, pastels, ceramics, and masks, provides a lively review of student work in commercial and fine art.

Particularly interesting are the fashion drawings by Peggy Key and Gerry Snow. Smart, fresh, they compare more than favorably with professional work in the field. Virginia Kibler’s paintings, done in large planes and bold colors are outstanding among the oils. The free, brilliant work by Helen Hartel, and the more quietly toned paintings by Margaret Tifft present interesting contrasts in the water color section.

view page image(s)H. J. RES 599 (Supplanting H. J. Res. 280)

The modest proposal for a Smithsonian Gallery of Art is little known, perhaps because it is virtually unobjectionable and has not caused much controversy.

This resolution, by Mr. Keller, proposes:

A building to be erected under the supervision of the Director of Procurement, Treasury Department, to be called the Smithsonian Gallery of Art, and to be under the supervision and control of the Regents and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

To foster art appreciation by public exhibitions in Washington and elsewhere.

To solicit funds from private sources, to acquire and sell contemporary works of art or copies thereof.

To receive donations of works of art from the Director of Procurement, W. P. A., and other agencies of government.

Such a gallery would stimulate contemporary art of non-government origin and would be an exhibition center for the donated art products of the Procurement Division and of W. P. A., at comparatively small cost to taxpayers.

The Keller Resolution would be improved if it provided for scientific researches into the craft of the graphic and plastic arts and for free distribution to practicing artists of the results thereof. The modest Smithsonian Gallery as proposed would have a capacity for growth. It might become all we’d want as a Federal Agency for the encouragement of contemporary painting and sculpture.

“IMPRESSIONS OF MARTHA GRAHAM”

Julia Bloch, young Philadelphian, famous for her block prints of cats and humorous character studies, has contributed the insert for this issue. Miss Bloch was educated at the School of Design for Women, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts.

She has exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy, the Art Alliance, the Print Club, the Plastic Club and the Warwick Galleries here, and in Atlantic City, N. J.; Brooklyn, N. Y.; Oakland, Calif., and Wichita, Kansas.

As an illustrator of children’s books, Miss Bloch will be remembered for her amusing designs for “Matilda, The Old Fashioned Hen,” the working drawings for which were shown in the 1937 Illustration Show at the Print Club.

view page image(s)EXHIBITIONS 1525 LOCUST STREET Water Colors and Pastels by John Dull. April. ARTIST’S UNION 1212 Walnut Street Group Show. Koffman, Langley, Chanin, Mesibov, Levit. Children’s Work from Montgomery County. Taught by W. P. A. Teachers. April 14May 1. CARLEN GALLERIES 323 South 16th Street Prints by Adolph Dehn. April 1–20. Work by Thomas Handforth. April 21 to May 4. Prints by Wanda Gag. May 5–19. CULTURAL OLYMPICS 3425 Woodland Avenue Final Festival Exhibition. April 27 to May 9. FRIENDS CENTRAL SCHOOL 68th and City Line, Overbrook 7th Annual Exhibition of Philadelphia Artists. HARCUM JUNIOR COLLEGE Paintings and Lithographs by Mary Butler and Benton Spruance. April. McCLEES GALLERIES 1615 Walnut Street 18th Century Portraiture. Contemporary American Painting. MODERN GALLERIES 1720 Chestnut St. Paintings by Joseph Grossman, to April 27. PENN CHARTER SCHOOL Germantown, Oils by Fellowship Members. March 15April 15. PENNSYLVANIA MUSEUM The Parkway Johnson Collection. Renoir Exhibit. Opens April 16. PHILADELPHIA A. C. A. GALLERY 323 South 16th Street Oils and Water Colors by June Groff. April 5–23. PHILADELPHIA ART ALLIANCE 251 South 18th Street Water Colors by Margaret Gest. April 5–24. Oils by Julius Bloch, April 5–24. Members’ Show. All Media. April 5–24. Water Colors by Earle Miller. April 26 to May 8. Oils by Katherine Farrell. April 26 to May 8. Drawings by Luis Quintanilla. April 26 to May 8. PHILADELPHIA PRINT CLUB 1614 Latimer Street A Loan Exhibition of Drawings and Prints by James McBey from the Collection of H. Kynett. April 18May 7. 15th Annual Exhibition of American Etching. April 9May 21. Work by Junior Members. May 2–21. SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL ART Broad and Pine Streets. Illustrated Books and Graphic Arts of the Soviet Union. April 1–16. Crafts by Members of the Alumni Association. April 21 to May 7. SESSLER’S 1310 Walnut St. Portraits in Oil by Isaac Rader. April 1–15. SETTLEMENT MUSIC SCHOOL Broad and Spruce Sts. Annual Exhibition to April 30. WARWICK GALLERIES 2022 Walnut Street Contemporary Oil Paintings. WOMENS’ CITY CLUB 1622 Locust Street Oils by Arrah Lee Gaul. Through April. WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY CLUB Warwick Hotel, 17th & Locust Sts. Paintings by John Folinsbee. April 2–30. Y. M. & Y. W. H. A. Broad and Pine Streets Students Exhibit. April 27 to May 9. ZECKWER HAHN MUSICAL ACADEMY 1617 Spruce St. Drawings and Paintings by Nat Koffman. April 4–25.
SPANISH WAR PAINTINGS TO BE SHOWN
“Catalan Soldier” drawing by Luis Quintanilla

Luis Quintanilla, artist of the war in Spain, will have a showing of his water colors at the Philadelphia Art Alliance from April 26th to May 8th.

Sr. Quintanilla’s early career, including parental opposition, the grand tour, the slow growth of recognition, followed the general pattern associated with artists. But he was a Spaniard and a Basque. He could not remain indifferent to the political convulsions of his country. And so, in the spring of 1930, at the very hour when Alfonso was deciding to leave the throne, Quintanilla was one of the crowd standing in the plaza in front of the palace. It was an orderly crowd but the civil guard was drawn up before the palace gates and their rifles were ready. The king was still in the palace and no one knew what was going to happen until Quintanilla climbed up the wall to a balcony and unfurled a great Republican flag. Fortunately, the issue had already been decided within the palace and the civil guard was given no orders to fire, so the bloodshed, which was so near, did not occur.

For Quintanilla, one of the results of this exploit was a commission to paint the murals in University City, that City planned as a grandiose monument to education but destined to become a series of battered fortresses. Quintanilla’s murals could be compared with the murals in Rockefeller Center, for his subject was the life of his country, the sowers, the laborers, the tenders of machines, the teachers, the scientists, painted into the walls with the firmness of color and design of an artist unpreoccupied with self.

He threw himself so unreservedly into the struggle on the side of the Spanish Government and was so reckless in battle that the government, feeling his life as an artist was too valuable to be lost, restrained him by putting him into diplomatic work. Nevertheless he was able to visit all the fronts and his exhibition consists of over a hundred drawings done for the most part either under fire or at the scene of an air raid. They range from the defense of Madrid at the opening of the war, through the Toledo, Jarama and Belchite campaign, to the operations around Teruel last January. Taken together, they form a complete picture of the war up to now, from the Loyalist side. The collection is probably unique in the world, for the drawings of military action have been actually done from life.

COLLECTORS OF AMERICAN ART TO HOLD CLIMAX SHOW

Bringing to a successful close its first season of activity, the Collectors of American Art, Inc., a noncommercial organization to “encourage the production and distribution of fine art in America,” will open its last exhibition before the annual membership drawing on April 6. Due to the large number of entries it was decided to hold this exhibition in more spacious quarters at 5 East 57th Street, New York, rather than at the organization’s headquarters, 38 West 57th Street. The annual drawing will take place early in May.

As under the old Art Union, paintings have been purchased by the collectors from the two earlier exhibitions for distribution by lot to the members. To date the following paintings have been purchased for this purpose:

“Head of a Girl” by Stephen Ronay; “Detroit Rooftops” by the Michigan artist, Harold Stockburger; “Bouquet” by Martha Simpson; and “New York Skyline” by James Lechay. From the April exhibition several other paintings will be purchased and held in trust for lucky members.

Among those members whose numbers do not win one of the paintings, original prints by Reginald Marsh and Stow Wengenroth will be distributed—so that each member will receive one work of art. The Marsh is an etching entitled “Locomotive Watering;” The Wengenroth is a lithograph entitled “Early Summer.” Since each print is limited to an edition of 100 signed impressions other plates will be purchased.

THE CHESTER COUNTY ART ASSOCIATION, at a meeting April 5, set the opening date for its annual exhibition as May 28. The private view will be held that afternoon and the annual banquet that evening. Henry White Taylor was appointed Chairman of the Exhibition Committee, by Dr. Christian Brinton, who presided.

NO TRUCE YET

Strong opposition to the Pepper-Coffee bill brought forth a tentative counter-proposal for a Federal Bureau of the Fine Arts which was published in full in the Philadelphia Art News of March 14.

At a meeting of Affiliated Art Heads of Philadelphia at the Academy of the Fine Arts on March 10, this tentative proposal was assigned to a committee for analysis. The committee found that the Bureau as proposed would be expensive and cumbersome, would not be free of politics, and would tend to continue Government subsidy of art projects to the detriment of art as a whole. The committee concludes that “this bill contains much that is questionable if not dangerous and we advise against its being introduced at this time.”

We judge from this that a truce cannot yet be called between the proponents and opponents of the Federal Arts Bureau idea.

GERMANTOWN ART LEAGUE TO HOLD SHOW

The Art League of Germantown announces its Sixth Annual Exhibition of oils, water colors, and sculpture for two weeks from May 9 to May 22, inclusive.

The exhibition will be the first held in the Art League’s new headquarters at “Vernon,” the recently restored John Wister house in Vernon Park, Germantown.

The exhibition is open to all artists of the Germantown and Chestnut Hill area. Information can be obtained from the exhibition chairman, George Lear, Rit. 3500.

view page image(s)THUMB TACKS COMMERCIAL ART NOTES By PETE BOYLE

When Charlie O’Connell, the RCA Executive, was decorated by the French Government for his sympathetic interest in French music, he joined forces with Ed Smith, the hat-needing etcher. They repaired to one of the finest beverage booths in town and proceeded to celebrate. Late that evening they discovered through the Scotch mist that they had forgotten to visit the French Consuls and claim the decoration. Vive la old-fashioned.

We have to shed a tear for an old studio pal of ours. Two months ago after a flush period of work he turned in his old crate and paid several hundred down on a new Ford. He hasn’t done a dime’s worth of work since.

A convivial friend of ours had a great deal of fun in a popular estaminet by introducing boyish Bill Jepson, A.D. of Franklin Printing as his son.

Some of the biggest mags these past few issues have been especially rich in cartoons by some of the local lads. Bo Brown has been crashing the Post and Colliers with happy frequency and Johnny Rosol’s pudgy cats are using their faultless feline teamwork and never failing to get a chuckle.

Ed Shenton has three beautiful black and whites in the New York Times Book Review of April 3rd. They represent some of the best examples of his highly individual and sensitive style and are a part of a group of illustrations for “The Yearling” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, published by Scribners.

There’s an interesting story behind Reddy Kilowatt, the trademark of the Philadelphia Electric Company. Symbol of light and the efficiency of electric service he is the brain child and sole property of a gentleman named Ash Collins. While working for a southern utility he conceived the idea of a fitting pictorial expression that would typify electricity in all its branches. He contacted an artist and after a great deal of revision Reddy was born. His owner had no trouble selling him down the river for a generous royalty. At present the ubiquitous little fellow is capering for no less than seventy utilities. He gets around too, for we find him speaking Spanish and Portuguese in South America. Collins is reported eyeing the European market for his little protege. He keeps a staff of twenty people, including artists busy in Birmingham, Alabama. Reddy is drawn locally by free-lance Ned Steel of Willow Grove, who is probably the only local artist who had the pleasure of doing art work for years in the salubrious climate of the Hawaiian Islands.

Harry Deese of the Aitkin Kynett art department, whose hobby is boxers, had the time of his life last week when a local banquet drew a bevy of ring greats to this city. He saw his idol, the great Battling Nelson after a lapse of many years, and in an atmosphere that fairly bloomed in cauliflower, entertained a group of quondam ringsters in his apartment. He was a little puzzled as to whether or not it would be proper to throw some resin on the floor.

Allan Wallower and his studio side-kick Frank Smith are collaborating on a series of ads for the Bell Telephone Co. Allen is doing the layouts and lettering, while Frank is doing nicely by the figure work.

The proprietors of the Pirate Ship on South Camac Street report that Bill Pollock, the Washington Square satyr, stayed out of the place one night last week.

We are loath to admit the morbid fact that business just isn’t. Talking with some of the free lances brings out the rocky state of our erratic calling. The only lively thing about is the mercurial habit of business to do the things it shouldn’t. A big agency in town has laid off a flock of people with heavy casualties in the art department. Depression or recession, we’re definitely against it.

AGENCY LISTING By CHARLES M. BOLAND

Starting where we left off February 28, we find ourselves in the Drexel Building and here is:

COX and TANZ. Mr. Cox will see you.

CARTER-THOMSON. This is at 1420 Walnut, and Mr. O’Keefe is the gentleman to ask for.

H. M. DITMAN. Morris Building, 1421 Chestnut St.; Mr. Ditman is the person to see.

HARRY FEIGENBAUM. You’ll go to the Widener Building on this one; Mr. Mullins is art director.

JEROME B. GRAY. P.S.F.S. is the building; Mr. Fry is the gentleman to see.

J. M. KORN. This is at 1528 Walnut Street and Mr. Devine will see you.

PHILIP KLEIN. Mr. Greenfield will see you and he’s at 1420 Walnut St.

ALBERT KIRCHER. This also is a P.S.F.S. agency; Mr. Fitzpatrick will look at your work.

MAY ADVERTISING. Mr. McInnes sees you here and the place is 1516 Chestnut.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

Handsome reproductions, mostly of drawings, of old and modern masters, have been issued in folios at $3.50 and $5.00 by Braun et Cie, France, and are available at a local art supply shop.

Special! Fitted sketch boxes, 12x16, $7.00. Other summer painting outfits can be had for oils, watercolors, and pastels in various sizes, qualities and prices.

Q I Cutawl is a small edition of the Standard Cutawl and costs much less (110–120 volt, $65). Starts cutting anywhere—no need to bore a hole. The work is stationery—Q I moves over it freely. Cuts designs any size in anything from paper and cloth to sheet steel. Portable. (Q I is 91/4x63/4x61/8 and weighs 81/2 lbs.) Safe. There’s never been a serious accident to a Cutawl operator. Illuminates the work with protected light.

MOORE STUDENT WINS CONTEST

Theresa di Marco, student in the third year illustration class of the Moore Institute, took first prize of $50 in the recent poster contest sponsored by the Reading Railroad Company. The competition, centering around the famous streamlined Reading train, was open to all art school students in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.

Miss di Marco also won the prize for the school poster on the Beggars’ Market, and was one of the five students recently selected to go on a study trip to New York, the expenses of which were paid by the Alumni Association of the Institute.

STYLES IN WALLPAPER

The Wallpaper Style Show, held last week at the Ritz-Carlton, vividly reflected trends and methods in contemporary decoration. New types of washable papers, bamboo borders, the popular decor of elegance, simulated wood squares—these were among the new notes introduced.

One of the most unusual papers was that designed for a man’s study or sporting room. Old sporting scenes, such as the first golf match played at St. Andrew’s were copied from Metropolitan Museum prints, originally done by Aikens about 1825.

RONALD HOWER, School of Industrial Arts student, won the first prize of $50 in the recent poster contest for “May Day at the Zoo.” Hower’s design showed two elephants very amusingly doing The Big Apple. The prize was presented at the Art Alliance by Mrs. S. S. White, 3d., chairman of the poster committee.

In conjunction with the current “Exhibition of Contemporary Russian Graphic Art,” on view at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Arts, Dr. Christian Brinton gave an illustrated lecture on “Art in the Soviet Union,” April 6, in the Lecture Room of the School.

INDUSTRIAL ART GRADS TO SHOW CRAFTS

The Alumni Association of the School of Industrial Art will hold its annual exhibition April 21 to May 7 in the exhibition gallery of the School. Due to space limitations, the show this year will be limited to crafts. Portraiture and landscape will be featured in next year’s exhibition.

The term crafts, however, is being broadly interpreted to include practically anything from glass to advertising designs. And to add further interest to the show, the actual development of each entry will be illustrated. An advertising design, for example, will show side by side, the original sketches, preliminary drawings, and all the intermediate steps to the finished reproduction as published.

John R. Sinnock, designer of coins for the United States Mint, Parke Edwards, well known for his metal work, Richard T. Dooner, photographer, W. Lambdin, art director, and Ralph Pallen Coleman, illustrator, will compose the jury.

ALUMNI HOLD GYPSY FROLIC

The Annual Alumni Ball of the Industrial Art School was held on Friday, April 8, in the Rose Room of the Bellevue-Stratford. The theme was a Romany Romp.

Music was supplied by Jerry Goffreda. A dance group under the supervision of Irene Lingo Tungate executed a gypsy dance, while an original play was presented, a take-off on Carmen, featurng Ferdinand the Bull. John Obold held forth as king of the Gypsies, doubling for Carmen’s pappy in the play. Others in the skit were Lela Morton, Louise Yerkes, Robert Limber, Robert Yerkes, and Charles Boland.

ALFRED SCHMIDT, who deserted the Philadelphia free lance field last year to work for the Bureau of Engraving in Washington, came home on April 1 (no fooling) to be married. His charming bride, the former Miss Louise Maddex, is an lowan and also employed in the Bureau. The couple celebrated by attending the Sketch Club Ladies’ Night, where many of Smitty’s old friends were on hand to congratulate him. The Schmidts will live in Cherrydale, Virginia.

view page image(s)AN ANSWER FROM THE W. P. A.

Ed. The following list of exhibitions was submitted to us by a member of the administration of the Federal Art Project as a partial answer to the widespread criticism of the local W. P. A.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE (Incomplete) PAST EXHIBITIONS SINCE JAN. 1, 1938 Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Jan. 22Feb. 27. Edward W. Bok Vocational School, Mar. 8Mar. 22. (Water Colors). Fleisher Vocational School, Mar. 15Mar. 22. (Prints). Sleighton Farms School, Mar. 14April 7. (Posters). South Philadelphia Girls’ High School, Mar. 14Mar. 25. (Prints). Central High School, Mar. 24April 6. (Prints). University of Penna. Exhibition of prints and posters during Schoolmen’s Week. CURRENT EXHIBITIONS International Institute (Oils). Lansdowne Public Schools. (Posters). Edward W. Bok Vocational School. (Posters). Pennsylvania State College. (Group of paintings, drawings, prints). Germantown High School. (Prints). National Youth Administration (Y. W. C. A.) (Prints and water colors). FORTHCOMING PRINT EXHIBITIONS AT THE FOLLOWING SCHOOLS Tilden Junior High School. Overbrook High School. Shoemaker Junior High School. Sulzberger Junior High School. Bartlett Junior High School. Edward Bok Vocational School. Northeast High School. Gillespie Junior High School. Gratz High School. Fitzsimons Junior High School.
DA VINCI ALLIANCE

The Da Vinci Alliance’s last monthly meeting of this season will be held at Pardi’s Studio, 10 S. 18th St., on Friday, May 6. It will be devoted to “Cinema as a Hobby.”

Outstanding amateurs and members of the Alliance, among them Ripley Bugbee, President of the Philadelphia Cinema League, Albert Robuschi, President of the Banca Commerciale Italiana, and Magistrate Charles Amodei, will show their latest films.

At the April meeting Honorary President Nicola D’Ascenzo gave a revealing illustrated talk on the folk art of Sicily and Theodore Dillaway showed movies of a Canadian trip and talked at length on the habits of wild life in Canada.

STUDENTS of the Pardi Art Classes will hold an exhibition of their work at Pardi’s Studio the week beginning Monday, May 2.

PLASTIC CLUB RECALLS PAST

Reminiscence was the theme of the Plastic Club tea of March 30, for under the direction of Mrs. Robert J. Hunter, head of the Library Committee, a lively series of talks, involving the past, present and future of this, the first women’s art club in the United States, was given.

Informally sketching the history of the organization, its formation and activities, Mrs. Hunter told of its founding in 1897. In March of that year, a group of prominent women artists, among them Cecelia Beaux, Harriet Sartain, Violet Oakley and Jessie Wilcox Smith, banded together in a room of the Fuller Building to form the first recognized association of women artists. In 1898 they held an exhibition of color work—the beginning of a long line of annual shows. The civic activities of the Club, their war work, such as camouflaging ships, the honors awarded to members, annual outings—all were touched upon in this review of the Plastic Club’s past.

As an addition to this account, Mrs. Walter Hering recalled former Rabbits, telling amusing stories of “Oriental Nights” and showing a fascinating set of old photographs.

As though proving that the future of the Plastic Club is to be no less noteworthy than its past, Miss A. Margaretta Archambault spoke about her and the Plastic Club’s work in promoting rotary exhibitions.

The Annual Sketch Class Exhibition of the Plastic Club will be opened with a private view, April 13 at 4:00 p.m. Mrs. John H. Gunter, Chairman, will be assisted by Mrs. Walter Greenwood, Mrs. Oliver W. McDowell, Mrs. Joseph W. Winter, Miss Margaret M. Welsh, hostesses, and Augusta H. Peoples, Chairman of the Exhibition Committee.

B. M. A. C.

At the Annual Meeting of the Business Men’s Art Club, held on March 14, the following officers were elected: President, William P. Lear; Vice-President, William J. Henderson; Secretary, George Lear; Treasurer, Paul R. Loos; Members of Executive Committee, Francis B. Hall, Theodore K. Gramm, Oswald Chew, and Karl Sevard.

ABOUT ARTISTS
“Portrait of an Artist” Photograph by Charles Ogle

ELIOT O’HARA, Philadelphia artist, is holding a retrospective exhibition, subtitled “Ten Years of Water Color Painting,” at the Argent Galleries, New York City, through April 16. Mr. O’Hara, known here as a distinguished painter, is instructor in water color at the School of Industrial Art.

H. WILLARD ORTLIP, and his wife Aimee E. Ortlip will exhibit their paintings at the Studio Guild, New York, from April 11 to 23. Mr. Ortlip has resided in Philadelphia for twenty-five years and is well known as a portrait painter.

HENRIETTE WYETH, member of the very well known artist family of Chadds Ford, is holding a one man show, “Paintings and Portraits,” at the Reinhardt Galleries, New York City until April 16.

ANDREW WYETH, young Chadds Ford painter, attains a still wider recognition through the reproduction of five of his Maine water colors in the April issue of Scribner’s Magazine.

An exhibition of sculpture by Cornelia A. Van Chapin is on view at the Fifteen Gallery, New York City, until April 16.

THE TWENTY-SECOND EXHIBITION of art by members of the Ceramic League of Philadelphia was held at the Plastic Club on April 8. Tea was served from two until six.

The April 7 meeting of the Miniature Camera Club, held at the Engineers Club, had as its main feature a talk by Richard R. Frame, photographer for Gimbel Bros. Store. Mr. Frame spoke on “Illustrative Photography, and Some of Its Problems.”

PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION By RHODES R. STABLEY

Head of English Department Radnor High School

It is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that laymen are taking a livelier interest in education today than at any time in national history. Meetings such as those recently held at Atlantic City have attracted the scrutiny and the comments of non-professional observers to an extent which is amazing to teachers who have accustomed themselves to thinking that affairs of education are dull stuff to the general mind. Interest is especially sharp on controversial issues which appear to be dividing educators into hostile camps.

Shades of the modernist fundamental conflict in religion of the last decade! We have the old forces at work socking each other in the same old way but in a different terrain. In education it is the liberal against the conservative, the Progressives against the Essentialists. Dorothy Thompson in a recent article professed to see in this hostile alignment the rising of a revolt of the parents—together with many teachers—against the fads and frills, the ineptitudes and absurdities of “progressive” education. Children are not being taught manners or morals, arithmetic or spelling, history or punctuation; they will do nothing they do not wish to do, they rarely do well the things they wish to do, and they usually wish to do only the things that are easy.

As a teacher in one of these so-called progressive schools I am, of course, convinced of the rightness of the progressive ideology. Far be it from me to define this ideology for the satisfaction of anyone in or out of the schools. But from the welter of words, ideas, principles, and concepts emerges one central fact about the Progressive movement which no one can honestly deny: it is a movement designed to help teachers and administrators “get at” the individual child in order to give him the help he needs. It is spurred on by the conviction that the old methods under which we adults were trained did little to discover the individual and less to assist him. It is convinced that head cramming, group drills, the A-B-C-D-E marking system, uniform requirements for all, and uniform standards for all are usually more effective in concealing a lad than in revealing him; it does not swallow and digest the old assumption that knowledge of facts means virtue in action and thinking. On the positive side it simply says: find out about the youngster—his attitudes, abilities, and interests; then help him to live and grow as a person in a world of his fellows. If there is anything undemocratic, communistic, or “subversive” in this doctrine, the burden of proof is on its critics.

ON THE SPOT SAGA OF A CAMERATEER By CHARLES OGLE
VII

Another brush with the French police occurred one time when I was working on a feature story with pictures of Parisian night life in Montmartre and Montparnasse. The spectacle of gargons de café or agents de police propelling a struggling and usually tipsy café girl from the bar to the curb was a not infrequent real life picture. But it always happened when I was minus my camera. I decided to stage this myself in the interest of the series and I looked around for a likely habituee of the Quarter who might be persuaded to be thrown out of a cafe for Art’s sake . . . and a hundred francs. There was a girl whom I shall call Mickey, because that is not her name, and who I shall say came from Holland because that is where she came from. I was agreeably surprised to find her falling in with the idea quite enthusiastically. We took a table on the fringe of a popular and crowded Montparnasse cafe, ordered a couple of Pernods, and endeavoured to bribe a waiter or two, who knew Mickey, to do their strongarm stuff. They were not to be cajoled, however, so we finished our drinks and I offered my companion the francs anyway. She ordered another Pernod, looked at me and said, “Do you want to get that picture?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Then get out there to the curb. Keep your camera out of sight, and watch me.” A game gal, that. I got into a taxi at the curb. The top was down and I opened the camera in the bottom of the tonneau.

Mickey finished her drink calmly, and then reached over to a neighboring table, snatched the hat from the head of an astonished American, removed the hatband and threw the hat into the street. A couple of tables and chairs followed the hat with magnificent abandon. The Café terrace was in an instant uproar. People were on their feet, standing on chairs and table tops to watch and cheer as Mickey really warmed up to her work. Waiters dashed forward.

“Call a couple of cops,” said the embattled lady, “I want to be arrested.” With that she coolly hurled another chair across the pavement. Her gestures were grand. A blue-coated policeman shouldered his way through the crowd. The waiters were nonplussed.

“One policeman’s not enough to arrest me.” Mickey declared indignantly.

That’s why French agents de police generally travel in pairs; it is beneath Gallic personal dignity to submit to arrest by one man. Two police, of course, outnumber one and individual pride is thus preserved.

Another agent appeared and they obligingly dragged their dramatically struggling prisoner to the curb while the camera clicked. There they good-naturedly let her free, but I saw too late, as I pulled her into my cab, that one of them had spotted my camera. He tumbled to the trick at once as my chauffeur stepped on the gas, and they both promptly stepped on the running-board and directed the driver to the nearest police station, which happened to be just around the corner. There we were hailed before the Commissaire who demanded to know what it was all about. I exhibited my press card and explained that I was merely taking a shot for a series of night life pictures. He examined my passport and carte d’identitie and after assuring him that my pictures and article intended no disrespect to the French police I was permitted to go. Not so Mickey. Unfortunately she did not have her passport or identity card with her and stayed in durance vile while I scouted around to find her papers and effected her release. The French police are invariably charming to foreigners and blessed as a rule with a keen sense of humor, but visiting firemen had best be possessed of their papers.

(To be continued)

view page image(s)ART IN PRINT By BEN WOLF

Three cheers for Walt Kuhn for preserving the story of the Armory Show for future generations. Mr. Kuhn, who was executive secretary of the exhibition, has told the story of that momentous show in a little pamphlet dedicated to the American artist of the future. Lucidly written, it explains the conditions that led up to the show as well as the concrete results. Plans for the exhibition sent Mr. Kuhn to Germany, Holland, France and England where he collected pertinent examples of the great moderns of the day. Mr. Kuhn modestly gives much of the credit for the Armory Show’s phenomenal success to the great American painter, Arthur B. Davies, who, Mr. Kuhn tells us, financed most of the exhibition from his own pocket.

As many of us know, the exhibition was held in the 165th Regiment Infantry Building in New York. The examples of art it fostered gave America its first opportunity to view the work of such men as Matisse, Dufy, Van Gogh. In large measure it was responsible for the purchase of a Cezanne by the Metropolitan Museum. Following its tremendous success in New York, the show went to Chicago where it enjoyed similar enthusiasm, and then to Boston where it was not so happily received.

The author attributes much of the modernity of design of our present apparel, automobiles, aeroplanes, etc. to the influence of that eye-opening exhibition of 1913. We understand that this pamphlet is not for sale, but we suspect that Mr. Kuhn would be only too glad to forward you a copy as he did your reviewer, who wrote to him at 112 E. 18th St., New York City, enclosing postage.

PAINT-CRAFT CRAFTSMANSHIP OF FINE ARTS PAINTING By F. W. WEBER

Another red lake pigment, perhaps one of the oldest dye-stuffs known, is Kermes. It is said to have been used as a dye in the time of Moses. Pliny, A. D. 77, calls it “coccigranum” and speaks of it as greatly valued in the days of the Roman Empire as a dye-stuff. The Venetian Scarlet of the Middle Ages was also obtained from Kermes. The pigments prepared from it in ancient times were usually precipitated on a base of chalk or gypsum and consequently appear more opaque than the modern transparent alumina base lakes. This deep crimson coloring matter of yellowish-red hue is a product of the insect Coccus Ilicis, resembling the Cochineal, the source of the rich and brilliant Carmine since about 1500 A. D. The Kermes Red and Carmine do not show the desirable stability of the Madder Lakes.

Another rather dull deep red lake pigment in use, at this time, was Lac Lake. It and Kermes were almost entirely displaced by the introduction of the more permanent Madder Lakes.

Dragon’s Blood, a deep red-brown colored resin, was called “Cinnabar” by the ancients and was also mentioned by Pliny in his natural history. It is now used principally as a coloring for lacquers, varnishes, toilet articles, etc., but seldom as an artist’s color. It exudes from wounds made in the bark of an Asiatic tree. The color, although rather fugitive under prolonged direct sunlight exposure, was principally valued for glazing.

From the very earliest times, prehistoric man made use of the prehistoric man made use of the natural red earths for purposes of decoration. These red ochres were selected for their beauty of color, ranging from cool bluish to warm yellowish reds. Early reference in ancient Grecian and Roman times was made to particularly bright varieties under the names Rubics and Sinopis.

It is very confusing to trace the history of some of the early pigments. For instance, Sinopis is sometimes described in early manuscripts as an especially bright red ochre. Again, we find the natural mineral “cinnabar” also given this name. Dragon’s Blood also appears under the name “cinnabar”. Pliny refers correctly to vermilion as “minium”, which name is now given to red lead.

(To be continued)

THEODORE DILLAWAY HONORED IN BOSTON

A former Philadelphia Art Teacher, Dorothy Oldach, now Supervisor of Art in the Schools of Bernardsville, N. J., delivered a lecture April 8, at the Vesper George School, Boston, Massachusetts on the Palettes of Contemporary American Painters. Her talk attracted many of the Art Teachers attending the Eastern Arts Convention which was being held in Boston at that time.

Local artists whose palettes Miss Oldach projected in color on the screen are Theodore Dillaway, Director of Art Education, Philadelphia Schools, who is also a very talented painter, Yarnall Abbott and Henry Pitz whose palettes were reproduced in this paper March 28, Henry B. Snell, and others. Interesting in connection with this talk was the fact that Mr. Dillaway has been President of the Eastern Arts Association, as well as Director of Art in the Boston Schools in past years.

Miss Oldach is planning to give her talk to a number of Art Organizations, Museums, and Women’s Clubs in the Philadelphia area, and those interested in this illustrated lecture may communicate with her at the Bernardsville High School.

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PHOTOGRAPHS SHOWN AT DREXEL

An international exhibition of photography opens the new “gallery within a gallery”—a set of inner walls which can be dismantled when not in use—at the Drexel Institute of Technology. The gift of Edward P. Simon, the new museum device is used to advantage to display a splendid collection of over one hundred prints by American and foreign photographers.

Aside from the general excellence of the photographs, at least one other feature makes this exhibit unusually interesting, the display of the original print with the final enlargement, as in Dr. Clarence Kern’s study of a New England church. The comparison of the amount of detail in the two prints provides an illuminating commentary on the methods of the miniature cameraman. Again, in Dana Mitchell’s still life, onions rolled out of a bushel basket, it is of interest to note the improvement in composition made by cutting off a section of the negative.

Among exceptionally fine prints might be noted the skiing and snow scenes by Aldo Chiappero, Donald Miner’s series of sand patterns, the composition in water reflections by the Philadelphian, Alfred A. DeLardi, and the revealing portrait of Alfred Stieglitz, dean of American photographers, by William Hill Field.

This exhibition, lent through the courtesy of Carl Zeiss, Inc., is the first of a series planned by the Advisory Art Committee of the college, devised to meet particularly the needs of students and to relate art to contemporary industrial life. The members of the Art Committee are Edward P. Simon, architect, chairman; Nicola D’Ascenzo, artist and designer of stained glass; Samuel Yellin, artist and designer of wrought iron; and Dorothy Grafly, art critic and writer, who is curator of the Drexel Museum and Picture Gallery.

GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIPS AWARDED

Three Pennsylvanians are among the recipients of Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships in the field of art this year. Dr. Carl Schuster, assistant curator of Chinese Art at the Pennsylvania Museum was awarded a second Fellowship to pursue further his comparative study of Chinese folk art, while Ahron Ben-Shmuel, Upper Black Eddy, and Janet de Coux, Gibsonia, were given awards for creative work in sculpture.

CENTER PLAY

Commonly regarded as “Leftist” by the Conservatives of the Art World, the Federal Arts Committee has veered towards center in a statement made by Stevens Maxey, its Executive Secretary, in response to the tentative Federal Arts Bureau proposal published in the Philadelphia Art News of March 14. After a summary of the policy of the Committee Mr. Maxey says:

“In conclusion, if all sections of the Art World will get behind your suggestions for a democratic administration, etc., the Committee is prepared to whole-heartedly support it.

“Specifically . . . ‘An artist is one who is practicing as a vocation rather than as an avocation, one or more of the Arts.’

“The functions, powers and duties of the Bureau shall include no relief projects whatsoever. Persons now employed on the Projects sponsored by the WPA who are not found eligible under the Bureau of Fine Arts shall remain under the jurisdiction—of the Federal Relief Administration.

“The regional administration will be vested in advisory committees elected by all art organizations of 50 or more members, serving without compensation. The Advisory Committee will elect the regional committeemen, determine what persons qualify as Artists, and advise the regional administrations as to what projects shall be carried out in each region. These are your proposals. If the majority of artists and art organizations. (Fine Art’s Federation, etc.) will support these provisions you have outlined, the Federal Arts Committee will whole-heartedly accept them and work for their accomplishment.”

This offers an opportunity for an accord between the representative art groups of America. Undeniably the Pepper-Coffee proposal has hung a veil of suspicion between the Conservatives and any proposal for the establishment of a Federal Arts Bureau. Nevertheless it is conceivable that a Bureau could be created which would benefit art as a whole. This may be the time to do it if it is ever to be done. Can we, whether we be radical or conservative, swallow our distrust, concentrate on the idea at hand, join forces with all who are interested in art, and do the job?

If not, it seems probable that another 10 or 25 years will pass before art will make a major adjustment to the current enormous sociological and economic changes.

SETTLEMENT SCHOOL EXHIBITS

Matisse is reported to have said, after seeing an exhibition of children’s work, that he had no further desire to paint. The statement may be extreme, but certainly many artists, visiting the Settlement Music School’s Exhibition at Broad and Spruce Sts. will more than admire the free imagination in which the sculpture, drawings, and paintings in this show have been conceived.

Characterized by great strength and vitality, the sculpture displays a comprehensive knowledge of the structure and plasticity of the human figure. The little painted clay statuettes by the younger classes, the wood-carvings, the large figure pieces—all show a highly original manipulation of masses and planes. Typical of this truly creative spirit is a seated woman, expressing, through elongated forms, a deep weariness and dejection. Finished with a surface resembling that of turquoise bronze, this piece of sculpture achieves unusual unity of form and idea.

The oils, mostly by children of about ten years old, have a fresh, naive quality. With great honesty of approach, they objectify the child’s emotions and opinions concerning his own world. The eviction of a family, a group of bright-eyed children, factory workers—these are but a few of the subjects the children have creatively reworked into expressive and stimulating pictures.

This exhibition, arranged under the supervision of Antonio Cortizas, art teacher at the School, will be open to the public until April 30.

PARKWAY TO HAVE MARBLE FRANKLIN

Thirty tons of Benjamin Franklin, now being hewn in the Long Island studio of sculptor James Earle Frabier, will soon travel to Franklin’s home city to become the central figure of a huge Memorial at Franklin Institute. The heroic figure, three times life size, is being cut from separate pieces of marble which will be bolted together. A pantograph device, invented by Edmondo Quatrecchi and never before used on a statue in this country, is being employed in the carving.

President Roosevelt and many prominent scientists, statesmen, educators and industrialists are expected to attend the dedication ceremony on May 19.

ARTISTS TO HOLD BAL MASQUE

The Fourth Annual Bal Masque, under the auspices of the Artists Union, will be held at the Penn Athletic Club on Saturday, May 7. With the theme gone native—the motif is “Americana”—art circles are looking forward to the lampooning of persons, institutions and affairs American.

Louis Hirschman, famous for his caricatures of the noted and notorious, constructed of scraps of junk, five-and-ten-cent store articles and kitchen utensils, will design the decorations for this year’s affair. They will be three-dimensional scenes from American life with almost life-size figures representing persons of political, economic and social importance.

The “Americana” theme, however, is not compulsory. The Committee has given its assurance that no one will be refused admittance if he comes as Ghandi instead of an American figure.

EPISCOPAL HOST TO EXHIBITION

Sixteen schools of the Philadelphia area exhibited examples of work done in their art classes, in the gymnasium of the Episcopal Academy, City Line and Berwick Road on April 4th, 5th and 6th.

No attempt was made for comprehensive representation of the work of the art departments of these schools. Nevertheless the show was gay and stimulating, and bespeaks an excellent cooperative spirit between educators. The schools represented were: Germantown Academy, William Penn Charter, Miquon, Haverford, Shipley, Moorestown Friends’, Friends’ Select, Holman, Episcopal, Stevens, Baldwin, Westtown, Agnes Irwin, Haverford Friends’, Springside and Friend’s Central.

Mr. William Tefft Schwarz is head of the Art Department of Episcopal Academy.

FRESH PAINT
“The Hitch-Hiker” by Julius Bloch—Photograph by Chappel Studio
WELDON BAILEY

The artist is beset by more than one problem over which he has no control.

One of the most prominent is the flourishing art auction of today. The theory of the auction—the loot to the highest bidder—means generally an unworthy price, in fact a reasonable chance of getting an actual treasure for a song.

Bougereaus, Sullys and Morans have recently been auctioned for absurdly low sums of money, and the art-buying public’s reaction to such an experience is far from healthy for the modern artist.

Principally, it places in his none too rosy path an added obstacle—it furnishes his potential buyers with a reason for not buying from him. It may even force his prices to the auctioneer’s level. And, lastly, he must struggle all the harder for recognition.

The auctioneer is not the artists’s friend.

The idea of circulating picture clubs is likewise none too happy for the artist. At first consideration it may appear a boon, but deeper penetration reveals more than one flaw in its construction.

It may be argued that this plan enables an artist to attain greater recognition by means of the enlarged audience offered.

We do not believe that his audience is increased thereby, for subscribers to this plan are generally gallery-goers and would see the artist’s work in any case. While purchasers may be found in this manner, it is more likely to discourage purchasing, inasmuch as the painting finds its way into a home for a mere rental. And again, to many members, variety may be the spice of art.

The idea of a purchasing fund established by the club is admirable, so far as it goes. In fact, it is doubtless agreeable to many artists whose work has been sold. To the majority of artist-contributors, however, it means no return.

In a word, under the plan of a circulating picture club, the artist contributes his stock-in-trade, bears the brunt of its usage, and is paid nothing for it unless he be one of the few whose work has been purchased. Furthermore, the club collects dues from its members on the strength of his contributions. And it is inclined to reduce the purchasing inclination of its public.

This is obviously an inadequate system. The artist must in some way be reimbursed for his cooperation—possibly in point of royalties. Otherwise, most artist-members give all and receive naught.

The current exhibition of Contemporary Russian Graphic Arts at the School of Industrial Art, sponsored by the American Russian Institute, is not only a vital and stimulating show, but one of great variety of thought and treatment. Included are illustrated books (mostly highly imaginative and ingenious in design), educational posters (bearing the stamp of advanced graphic conception), wood cuts (black and white and in color), and photos of stage sets augmented by color prints of scenic and costume designs.

The last named should prove of extraordinary interest to all theatre-lovers. The photos reveal the sumptuous quality of modern Russian sets, and have been made at the Moscow Art Theatre, Vakhtangou Theatre and Kamering Theatre, among others. Fantasy and vivid design accentuate the color prints of theatrical costumes.

Much pictorial ingenuity and cleverness is to be found in the wood cuts. Vladimir Favorsky, that old pillar of Russian wood-cut—for whom we have tremendous admiration—is well represented with his wealth of forms and linear patterns so personal to himself, while Kravchenko and Sternberg take next place in point of technical excellence and individuality of composition.

The lithographs of Adolph Dehn, now at the Carlen Galleries, are as provocative as usual. One sees them and is sufficiently disturbed to return to them—excellent proof of a good print.

Judging by this show, the artist has two phases: delineation of character devoid of flattery, and a purely pictorial eye cast upon landscape.

In the former we find principally an uncompromising bitterness of approach to humanity and its foibles, interpreted with a highly individualized textural sense plus the ability to make a line say all the unpleasant things this artist thinks about people.

This approach is principally exemplified in such prints as “All for a Piece of Meat”, “We Speak English”, “Applause”, “Lohengrin” and “The Little Sinner”.

Dehn’s non-figure prints lean more than a little toward Japanesque pictorial thought, to which “Storm” and “Niagara Falls” bear ample testimony.

JANE RICHTER

Five Philadelphia artists inaugurate a new series of shows of inexpensively priced work at the Artists Union with a group exhibition of drawings, pastels and water colors. Lisa Langley presents a group of green landscapes in which the undulating hill and field scene is interpreted with a compact simplicity. Nat Koffman’s wash drawings attain a certain sculpturesque quality through emphasis on large rounded areas. Herschel Levit’s charcoal portraits for Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” amply express the fierceness and passion of their inspiration. Hubert Mesibov has contributed a group of very interesting water colors. Superficially chaotic, these paintings, in their very formlessness reveal a definite pattern. Abe Chanin’s water colors, many done during his recent study in Florida, use deep inner-glow colors with a certain fierceness of design.

Interesting as are the revelations of these five distinct personalities, the important point about this show would seem to be its purpose—to put living art within the reach of lower-income people. With prices ranging from $2 to $35, a vastly greater number of people will be able to afford original art works. In this particular show, the media chosen are in themselves inexpensive, thus making possible some profit as well as an altruistic gesture for the artist.

Competently executed and endowed with a quiet charm, Mary Butler’s oils and water colors, on view at Harcum Junior College, present landscapes and flower pieces of pleasing design and color. “River and Beach, Ogunquit,” a pattern of dark blue sea, the dark blue curve of the river, rocks, and flat, grey sand, and “Autumn in the Berkshires”, vertical cornstalks evenly spaced against a low blue mountain, are typical of her oils. In “Cathedral Crag—A Wet Day” the water color fully recreates the mist clinging to the peak. Color and form have a proper indefiniteness.

Jointly exhibiting with Miss Butler is Benton Spruance who shows a characteristically exciting group of lithographs, among them the familiar series “The People Work”, cross-sections of the labor of a great city. An artist steeped in the contemporary world, Spruance reshapes the matter and mood of his environment into organic relationships. “Road from the Shore” and “Highway Holiday,” terrifying visualizations of our mania for speed, repeat the madness of the theme in the long, sweeping distortions of machine and human forms.

Washed in light, John J. Dull’s oils and water colors, exhibited at 1525 Locust St., are a record of Philadelphia scenes. All the squares and green places, the skylines, the buildings and boulevards, have been noted down with an unfailing clarity of color and shape.

After seeing “Derelict”, an embittered portrait in the Y.M.H.A. show, one might have expected a far more radical Joseph Grossman than is revealed in his current exhibition at the Modern Galleries. Here are simply conceived landscapes and still lifes, painted with a texture and color range that suggest pastel. “The Lone Tree,” a single tree casting the shadow of noon in a field, focuses summer heat. “The Old Barn,” handled with less restraint and more vitality, convincingly portrays the rural scene.

In a group of fourteen oils at the Women City’s Club, Arrah Lee Gaul shows herself to be a painter in very clear, clean color. “Desert,” a composition in the varying colors of flat land areas accentuated by green patches of sage brush exemplifies both her methods and her point of view. This is not the death-bearing desert of O’Keefe, but merely a country of great stillness and tranquillity. It is with this mood that she composed the majority of canvases in the exhibition.

One of the finest of current exhibitions is John Folinsbee’s at the Women’s University Club. A very free painter, using strong color and composition Folinsbee gives a new and dramatic significance to the Pennsylvania landscape. “Dark Hollow Road” is typical of this approach. Against an overcast sky, rise great incandescent trees of fall, throwing deep shadows on a narrow road and little group of houses. The beauty here is sinister, man and the fragile buildings he erects being dwarfed by the immensity of the storm filled sky, the gold trees, and the hills.

Also included in this show are a group of delightful child portraits. Broadly painted and informally posed, they portray the inherent gravity and seriousness that young children possess in repose.

A painter of various but always definite ability is June Groff, showing oils and water colors at the A.C.A. Gallery. With methods ranging from the thick, almost paste-like application of paint in “Circus Performer,” to the very thinly laid-on color of “Smoky Mills” or “Fruit and Wine,” she reveals herself as still in the experimental stage, but with a consistently thorough understanding of whatever manner she employs.

“Smoky Mills” by June Groff

“Circus Performers,” turbulent both as to design and color; the lyrical “Smoky Mills” in greys, violets, and deep reds; the small flower picture “Anemones”—these are among the most satisfying canvases in the exhibition.

Julius Bloch’s one man show of oils at the Art Alliance is the exposition of a large-minded artist, who looks at men, white or colored, first as human beings, and then as members of a race. There is little essential difference between the portraits, “Hitchhiker,” a white youth, and “Stevedore,” a negro laborer; both are symbols of physical and mental exhaustion. The negro subjects who sat for the majority of canvases in this exhibit, were not painted for purposes of satire, or humor, or propaganda, but for themselves, as they possess dignity, and nobility.

Bloch often, of course, displays a very real bitterness toward social practice, as in “Lynching,” “Park Benches,” and “Prisoner,” but it is never mere incoherent protest. The personal feeling of the artist has been sufficiently objectified to make good art as well as good opinion. “Prisoners” is not the depiction of an isolated negro, but a comprehensive expression of imprisonment in the abstract.

A second one man show at the Art Alliance is that of Margaret Gest’s water colors and pastels. Miss Gest, as appears from this group of paintings, is an interpreter of mood and atmosphere, rather than of material fact. In “Rain and Cooler” we feel the ominous tenseness that precedes a summer storm; in “Dark Grove” the dominant theme is the mystery of this shadowed group of trees. “Rocks” a skillful combination of abstract forms, is shot through with an almost physical sensation of strain.

A group of abstractions, “The Four Seasons,” visualizes the varying themes of the year. Winter’s quiescence is seen through a horizontal design of greys and blacks; the growth of spring, in shooting points of blue; the ripeness of summer, in a revolving rose form; while the agitated red, black, and brown swirls of “Autumn” illustrate the “Pestilence stricken multitudes” of Shelley’s poem.

Replacing the all too prevalent blacks and browns of modern portraiture with light, clear colors, Isaac Rader shows a group of minutely detailed, smoothly painted portraits at Sessler’s. The subjects have been informally posed, usually in an interior setting that attempts to reflect their personalities. Mark Twain is shown in an early American kitchen, seated by a window framed in vines; Mrs. Rader, in a blue evening gown, stands in a carefully described living room. The final impression, however, is of a too great concentration on material surroundings, of a too great objectivity, rather than the intended interpretation of the “inner man.”

The less carefully planned water colors, especially the child portraits, have more spontaneity, and exhibit a more searching appraisal of the subjects.

The eleven artists exhibiting at the Y.M. & Y.W.H.A. have contributed a varied, and generally excellent, group of paintings. If there be a common denominator it is that of integrity, a quality equally apparent in Joe Hirsch’s satiric “Two Men” and in Hortense Ferne’s unfinished, but thoroughly charming “Portrait Study”.

Several of these eighteen paintings seem particularly outstanding. Henry Cooper’s “After the Rehearsal” previously shown in this year’s Academy Annual, reiterates a splendid realization of form and glowing color; “Reb Mnashe” a portrait by Samuel Salko, demonstrates the transmutation of pure emotion into art. Harry Zion’s “Back Bay,” soft blues and green seen through a summer haze, is one of the most satisfying of the landscapes.

Other exhibitors are: Stella Drabkin, Joseph Grossman, Isaac Lipschutz, Herman Rutman, Elizabeth Schupack, and Karl Sherman.

The Annual Exhibition of the Beta Gamma Sigma Sorority of the School of Industrial Art, on view at the Sketch Club, and embracing oils, water colors, pen and ink drawings, pastels, ceramics, and masks, provides a lively review of student work in commercial and fine art.

Particularly interesting are the fashion drawings by Peggy Key and Gerry Snow. Smart, fresh, they compare more than favorably with professional work in the field. Virginia Kibler’s paintings, done in large planes and bold colors are outstanding among the oils. The free, brilliant work by Helen Hartel, and the more quietly toned paintings by Margaret Tifft present interesting contrasts in the water color section.

H. J. RES 599 (Supplanting H. J. Res. 280)

The modest proposal for a Smithsonian Gallery of Art is little known, perhaps because it is virtually unobjectionable and has not caused much controversy.

This resolution, by Mr. Keller, proposes:

A building to be erected under the supervision of the Director of Procurement, Treasury Department, to be called the Smithsonian Gallery of Art, and to be under the supervision and control of the Regents and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

To foster art appreciation by public exhibitions in Washington and elsewhere.

To solicit funds from private sources, to acquire and sell contemporary works of art or copies thereof.

To receive donations of works of art from the Director of Procurement, W. P. A., and other agencies of government.

Such a gallery would stimulate contemporary art of non-government origin and would be an exhibition center for the donated art products of the Procurement Division and of W. P. A., at comparatively small cost to taxpayers.

The Keller Resolution would be improved if it provided for scientific researches into the craft of the graphic and plastic arts and for free distribution to practicing artists of the results thereof. The modest Smithsonian Gallery as proposed would have a capacity for growth. It might become all we’d want as a Federal Agency for the encouragement of contemporary painting and sculpture.

“IMPRESSIONS OF MARTHA GRAHAM”

Julia Bloch, young Philadelphian, famous for her block prints of cats and humorous character studies, has contributed the insert for this issue. Miss Bloch was educated at the School of Design for Women, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts.

She has exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy, the Art Alliance, the Print Club, the Plastic Club and the Warwick Galleries here, and in Atlantic City, N. J.; Brooklyn, N. Y.; Oakland, Calif., and Wichita, Kansas.

As an illustrator of children’s books, Miss Bloch will be remembered for her amusing designs for “Matilda, The Old Fashioned Hen,” the working drawings for which were shown in the 1937 Illustration Show at the Print Club.

EXHIBITIONS 1525 LOCUST STREET Water Colors and Pastels by John Dull. April. ARTIST’S UNION 1212 Walnut Street Group Show. Koffman, Langley, Chanin, Mesibov, Levit. Children’s Work from Montgomery County. Taught by W. P. A. Teachers. April 14May 1. CARLEN GALLERIES 323 South 16th Street Prints by Adolph Dehn. April 1–20. Work by Thomas Handforth. April 21 to May 4. Prints by Wanda Gag. May 5–19. CULTURAL OLYMPICS 3425 Woodland Avenue Final Festival Exhibition. April 27 to May 9. FRIENDS CENTRAL SCHOOL 68th and City Line, Overbrook 7th Annual Exhibition of Philadelphia Artists. HARCUM JUNIOR COLLEGE Paintings and Lithographs by Mary Butler and Benton Spruance. April. McCLEES GALLERIES 1615 Walnut Street 18th Century Portraiture. Contemporary American Painting. MODERN GALLERIES 1720 Chestnut St. Paintings by Joseph Grossman, to April 27. PENN CHARTER SCHOOL Germantown, Oils by Fellowship Members. March 15April 15. PENNSYLVANIA MUSEUM The Parkway Johnson Collection. Renoir Exhibit. Opens April 16. PHILADELPHIA A. C. A. GALLERY 323 South 16th Street Oils and Water Colors by June Groff. April 5–23. PHILADELPHIA ART ALLIANCE 251 South 18th Street Water Colors by Margaret Gest. April 5–24. Oils by Julius Bloch, April 5–24. Members’ Show. All Media. April 5–24. Water Colors by Earle Miller. April 26 to May 8. Oils by Katherine Farrell. April 26 to May 8. Drawings by Luis Quintanilla. April 26 to May 8. PHILADELPHIA PRINT CLUB 1614 Latimer Street A Loan Exhibition of Drawings and Prints by James McBey from the Collection of H. Kynett. April 18May 7. 15th Annual Exhibition of American Etching. April 9May 21. Work by Junior Members. May 2–21. SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL ART Broad and Pine Streets. Illustrated Books and Graphic Arts of the Soviet Union. April 1–16. Crafts by Members of the Alumni Association. April 21 to May 7. SESSLER’S 1310 Walnut St. Portraits in Oil by Isaac Rader. April 1–15. SETTLEMENT MUSIC SCHOOL Broad and Spruce Sts. Annual Exhibition to April 30. WARWICK GALLERIES 2022 Walnut Street Contemporary Oil Paintings. WOMENS’ CITY CLUB 1622 Locust Street Oils by Arrah Lee Gaul. Through April. WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY CLUB Warwick Hotel, 17th & Locust Sts. Paintings by John Folinsbee. April 2–30. Y. M. & Y. W. H. A. Broad and Pine Streets Students Exhibit. April 27 to May 9. ZECKWER HAHN MUSICAL ACADEMY 1617 Spruce St. Drawings and Paintings by Nat Koffman. April 4–25.
SPANISH WAR PAINTINGS TO BE SHOWN
“Catalan Soldier” drawing by Luis Quintanilla

Luis Quintanilla, artist of the war in Spain, will have a showing of his water colors at the Philadelphia Art Alliance from April 26th to May 8th.

Sr. Quintanilla’s early career, including parental opposition, the grand tour, the slow growth of recognition, followed the general pattern associated with artists. But he was a Spaniard and a Basque. He could not remain indifferent to the political convulsions of his country. And so, in the spring of 1930, at the very hour when Alfonso was deciding to leave the throne, Quintanilla was one of the crowd standing in the plaza in front of the palace. It was an orderly crowd but the civil guard was drawn up before the palace gates and their rifles were ready. The king was still in the palace and no one knew what was going to happen until Quintanilla climbed up the wall to a balcony and unfurled a great Republican flag. Fortunately, the issue had already been decided within the palace and the civil guard was given no orders to fire, so the bloodshed, which was so near, did not occur.

For Quintanilla, one of the results of this exploit was a commission to paint the murals in University City, that City planned as a grandiose monument to education but destined to become a series of battered fortresses. Quintanilla’s murals could be compared with the murals in Rockefeller Center, for his subject was the life of his country, the sowers, the laborers, the tenders of machines, the teachers, the scientists, painted into the walls with the firmness of color and design of an artist unpreoccupied with self.

He threw himself so unreservedly into the struggle on the side of the Spanish Government and was so reckless in battle that the government, feeling his life as an artist was too valuable to be lost, restrained him by putting him into diplomatic work. Nevertheless he was able to visit all the fronts and his exhibition consists of over a hundred drawings done for the most part either under fire or at the scene of an air raid. They range from the defense of Madrid at the opening of the war, through the Toledo, Jarama and Belchite campaign, to the operations around Teruel last January. Taken together, they form a complete picture of the war up to now, from the Loyalist side. The collection is probably unique in the world, for the drawings of military action have been actually done from life.

COLLECTORS OF AMERICAN ART TO HOLD CLIMAX SHOW

Bringing to a successful close its first season of activity, the Collectors of American Art, Inc., a noncommercial organization to “encourage the production and distribution of fine art in America,” will open its last exhibition before the annual membership drawing on April 6. Due to the large number of entries it was decided to hold this exhibition in more spacious quarters at 5 East 57th Street, New York, rather than at the organization’s headquarters, 38 West 57th Street. The annual drawing will take place early in May.

As under the old Art Union, paintings have been purchased by the collectors from the two earlier exhibitions for distribution by lot to the members. To date the following paintings have been purchased for this purpose:

“Head of a Girl” by Stephen Ronay; “Detroit Rooftops” by the Michigan artist, Harold Stockburger; “Bouquet” by Martha Simpson; and “New York Skyline” by James Lechay. From the April exhibition several other paintings will be purchased and held in trust for lucky members.

Among those members whose numbers do not win one of the paintings, original prints by Reginald Marsh and Stow Wengenroth will be distributed—so that each member will receive one work of art. The Marsh is an etching entitled “Locomotive Watering;” The Wengenroth is a lithograph entitled “Early Summer.” Since each print is limited to an edition of 100 signed impressions other plates will be purchased.

THE CHESTER COUNTY ART ASSOCIATION, at a meeting April 5, set the opening date for its annual exhibition as May 28. The private view will be held that afternoon and the annual banquet that evening. Henry White Taylor was appointed Chairman of the Exhibition Committee, by Dr. Christian Brinton, who presided.

NO TRUCE YET

Strong opposition to the Pepper-Coffee bill brought forth a tentative counter-proposal for a Federal Bureau of the Fine Arts which was published in full in the Philadelphia Art News of March 14.

At a meeting of Affiliated Art Heads of Philadelphia at the Academy of the Fine Arts on March 10, this tentative proposal was assigned to a committee for analysis. The committee found that the Bureau as proposed would be expensive and cumbersome, would not be free of politics, and would tend to continue Government subsidy of art projects to the detriment of art as a whole. The committee concludes that “this bill contains much that is questionable if not dangerous and we advise against its being introduced at this time.”

We judge from this that a truce cannot yet be called between the proponents and opponents of the Federal Arts Bureau idea.

GERMANTOWN ART LEAGUE TO HOLD SHOW

The Art League of Germantown announces its Sixth Annual Exhibition of oils, water colors, and sculpture for two weeks from May 9 to May 22, inclusive.

The exhibition will be the first held in the Art League’s new headquarters at “Vernon,” the recently restored John Wister house in Vernon Park, Germantown.

The exhibition is open to all artists of the Germantown and Chestnut Hill area. Information can be obtained from the exhibition chairman, George Lear, Rit. 3500.

THUMB TACKS COMMERCIAL ART NOTES By PETE BOYLE

When Charlie O’Connell, the RCA Executive, was decorated by the French Government for his sympathetic interest in French music, he joined forces with Ed Smith, the hat-needing etcher. They repaired to one of the finest beverage booths in town and proceeded to celebrate. Late that evening they discovered through the Scotch mist that they had forgotten to visit the French Consuls and claim the decoration. Vive la old-fashioned.

We have to shed a tear for an old studio pal of ours. Two months ago after a flush period of work he turned in his old crate and paid several hundred down on a new Ford. He hasn’t done a dime’s worth of work since.

A convivial friend of ours had a great deal of fun in a popular estaminet by introducing boyish Bill Jepson, A.D. of Franklin Printing as his son.

Some of the biggest mags these past few issues have been especially rich in cartoons by some of the local lads. Bo Brown has been crashing the Post and Colliers with happy frequency and Johnny Rosol’s pudgy cats are using their faultless feline teamwork and never failing to get a chuckle.

Ed Shenton has three beautiful black and whites in the New York Times Book Review of April 3rd. They represent some of the best examples of his highly individual and sensitive style and are a part of a group of illustrations for “The Yearling” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, published by Scribners.

There’s an interesting story behind Reddy Kilowatt, the trademark of the Philadelphia Electric Company. Symbol of light and the efficiency of electric service he is the brain child and sole property of a gentleman named Ash Collins. While working for a southern utility he conceived the idea of a fitting pictorial expression that would typify electricity in all its branches. He contacted an artist and after a great deal of revision Reddy was born. His owner had no trouble selling him down the river for a generous royalty. At present the ubiquitous little fellow is capering for no less than seventy utilities. He gets around too, for we find him speaking Spanish and Portuguese in South America. Collins is reported eyeing the European market for his little protege. He keeps a staff of twenty people, including artists busy in Birmingham, Alabama. Reddy is drawn locally by free-lance Ned Steel of Willow Grove, who is probably the only local artist who had the pleasure of doing art work for years in the salubrious climate of the Hawaiian Islands.

Harry Deese of the Aitkin Kynett art department, whose hobby is boxers, had the time of his life last week when a local banquet drew a bevy of ring greats to this city. He saw his idol, the great Battling Nelson after a lapse of many years, and in an atmosphere that fairly bloomed in cauliflower, entertained a group of quondam ringsters in his apartment. He was a little puzzled as to whether or not it would be proper to throw some resin on the floor.

Allan Wallower and his studio side-kick Frank Smith are collaborating on a series of ads for the Bell Telephone Co. Allen is doing the layouts and lettering, while Frank is doing nicely by the figure work.

The proprietors of the Pirate Ship on South Camac Street report that Bill Pollock, the Washington Square satyr, stayed out of the place one night last week.

We are loath to admit the morbid fact that business just isn’t. Talking with some of the free lances brings out the rocky state of our erratic calling. The only lively thing about is the mercurial habit of business to do the things it shouldn’t. A big agency in town has laid off a flock of people with heavy casualties in the art department. Depression or recession, we’re definitely against it.

AGENCY LISTING By CHARLES M. BOLAND

Starting where we left off February 28, we find ourselves in the Drexel Building and here is:

COX and TANZ. Mr. Cox will see you.

CARTER-THOMSON. This is at 1420 Walnut, and Mr. O’Keefe is the gentleman to ask for.

H. M. DITMAN. Morris Building, 1421 Chestnut St.; Mr. Ditman is the person to see.

HARRY FEIGENBAUM. You’ll go to the Widener Building on this one; Mr. Mullins is art director.

JEROME B. GRAY. P.S.F.S. is the building; Mr. Fry is the gentleman to see.

J. M. KORN. This is at 1528 Walnut Street and Mr. Devine will see you.

PHILIP KLEIN. Mr. Greenfield will see you and he’s at 1420 Walnut St.

ALBERT KIRCHER. This also is a P.S.F.S. agency; Mr. Fitzpatrick will look at your work.

MAY ADVERTISING. Mr. McInnes sees you here and the place is 1516 Chestnut.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

Handsome reproductions, mostly of drawings, of old and modern masters, have been issued in folios at $3.50 and $5.00 by Braun et Cie, France, and are available at a local art supply shop.

Special! Fitted sketch boxes, 12x16, $7.00. Other summer painting outfits can be had for oils, watercolors, and pastels in various sizes, qualities and prices.

Q I Cutawl is a small edition of the Standard Cutawl and costs much less (110–120 volt, $65). Starts cutting anywhere—no need to bore a hole. The work is stationery—Q I moves over it freely. Cuts designs any size in anything from paper and cloth to sheet steel. Portable. (Q I is 91/4x63/4x61/8 and weighs 81/2 lbs.) Safe. There’s never been a serious accident to a Cutawl operator. Illuminates the work with protected light.

MOORE STUDENT WINS CONTEST

Theresa di Marco, student in the third year illustration class of the Moore Institute, took first prize of $50 in the recent poster contest sponsored by the Reading Railroad Company. The competition, centering around the famous streamlined Reading train, was open to all art school students in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.

Miss di Marco also won the prize for the school poster on the Beggars’ Market, and was one of the five students recently selected to go on a study trip to New York, the expenses of which were paid by the Alumni Association of the Institute.

STYLES IN WALLPAPER

The Wallpaper Style Show, held last week at the Ritz-Carlton, vividly reflected trends and methods in contemporary decoration. New types of washable papers, bamboo borders, the popular decor of elegance, simulated wood squares—these were among the new notes introduced.

One of the most unusual papers was that designed for a man’s study or sporting room. Old sporting scenes, such as the first golf match played at St. Andrew’s were copied from Metropolitan Museum prints, originally done by Aikens about 1825.

RONALD HOWER, School of Industrial Arts student, won the first prize of $50 in the recent poster contest for “May Day at the Zoo.” Hower’s design showed two elephants very amusingly doing The Big Apple. The prize was presented at the Art Alliance by Mrs. S. S. White, 3d., chairman of the poster committee.

In conjunction with the current “Exhibition of Contemporary Russian Graphic Art,” on view at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Arts, Dr. Christian Brinton gave an illustrated lecture on “Art in the Soviet Union,” April 6, in the Lecture Room of the School.

INDUSTRIAL ART GRADS TO SHOW CRAFTS

The Alumni Association of the School of Industrial Art will hold its annual exhibition April 21 to May 7 in the exhibition gallery of the School. Due to space limitations, the show this year will be limited to crafts. Portraiture and landscape will be featured in next year’s exhibition.

The term crafts, however, is being broadly interpreted to include practically anything from glass to advertising designs. And to add further interest to the show, the actual development of each entry will be illustrated. An advertising design, for example, will show side by side, the original sketches, preliminary drawings, and all the intermediate steps to the finished reproduction as published.

John R. Sinnock, designer of coins for the United States Mint, Parke Edwards, well known for his metal work, Richard T. Dooner, photographer, W. Lambdin, art director, and Ralph Pallen Coleman, illustrator, will compose the jury.

ALUMNI HOLD GYPSY FROLIC

The Annual Alumni Ball of the Industrial Art School was held on Friday, April 8, in the Rose Room of the Bellevue-Stratford. The theme was a Romany Romp.

Music was supplied by Jerry Goffreda. A dance group under the supervision of Irene Lingo Tungate executed a gypsy dance, while an original play was presented, a take-off on Carmen, featurng Ferdinand the Bull. John Obold held forth as king of the Gypsies, doubling for Carmen’s pappy in the play. Others in the skit were Lela Morton, Louise Yerkes, Robert Limber, Robert Yerkes, and Charles Boland.

ALFRED SCHMIDT, who deserted the Philadelphia free lance field last year to work for the Bureau of Engraving in Washington, came home on April 1 (no fooling) to be married. His charming bride, the former Miss Louise Maddex, is an lowan and also employed in the Bureau. The couple celebrated by attending the Sketch Club Ladies’ Night, where many of Smitty’s old friends were on hand to congratulate him. The Schmidts will live in Cherrydale, Virginia.

AN ANSWER FROM THE W. P. A.

Ed. The following list of exhibitions was submitted to us by a member of the administration of the Federal Art Project as a partial answer to the widespread criticism of the local W. P. A.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE (Incomplete) PAST EXHIBITIONS SINCE JAN. 1, 1938 Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Jan. 22Feb. 27. Edward W. Bok Vocational School, Mar. 8Mar. 22. (Water Colors). Fleisher Vocational School, Mar. 15Mar. 22. (Prints). Sleighton Farms School, Mar. 14April 7. (Posters). South Philadelphia Girls’ High School, Mar. 14Mar. 25. (Prints). Central High School, Mar. 24April 6. (Prints). University of Penna. Exhibition of prints and posters during Schoolmen’s Week. CURRENT EXHIBITIONS International Institute (Oils). Lansdowne Public Schools. (Posters). Edward W. Bok Vocational School. (Posters). Pennsylvania State College. (Group of paintings, drawings, prints). Germantown High School. (Prints). National Youth Administration (Y. W. C. A.) (Prints and water colors). FORTHCOMING PRINT EXHIBITIONS AT THE FOLLOWING SCHOOLS Tilden Junior High School. Overbrook High School. Shoemaker Junior High School. Sulzberger Junior High School. Bartlett Junior High School. Edward Bok Vocational School. Northeast High School. Gillespie Junior High School. Gratz High School. Fitzsimons Junior High School.
DA VINCI ALLIANCE

The Da Vinci Alliance’s last monthly meeting of this season will be held at Pardi’s Studio, 10 S. 18th St., on Friday, May 6. It will be devoted to “Cinema as a Hobby.”

Outstanding amateurs and members of the Alliance, among them Ripley Bugbee, President of the Philadelphia Cinema League, Albert Robuschi, President of the Banca Commerciale Italiana, and Magistrate Charles Amodei, will show their latest films.

At the April meeting Honorary President Nicola D’Ascenzo gave a revealing illustrated talk on the folk art of Sicily and Theodore Dillaway showed movies of a Canadian trip and talked at length on the habits of wild life in Canada.

STUDENTS of the Pardi Art Classes will hold an exhibition of their work at Pardi’s Studio the week beginning Monday, May 2.

PLASTIC CLUB RECALLS PAST

Reminiscence was the theme of the Plastic Club tea of March 30, for under the direction of Mrs. Robert J. Hunter, head of the Library Committee, a lively series of talks, involving the past, present and future of this, the first women’s art club in the United States, was given.

Informally sketching the history of the organization, its formation and activities, Mrs. Hunter told of its founding in 1897. In March of that year, a group of prominent women artists, among them Cecelia Beaux, Harriet Sartain, Violet Oakley and Jessie Wilcox Smith, banded together in a room of the Fuller Building to form the first recognized association of women artists. In 1898 they held an exhibition of color work—the beginning of a long line of annual shows. The civic activities of the Club, their war work, such as camouflaging ships, the honors awarded to members, annual outings—all were touched upon in this review of the Plastic Club’s past.

As an addition to this account, Mrs. Walter Hering recalled former Rabbits, telling amusing stories of “Oriental Nights” and showing a fascinating set of old photographs.

As though proving that the future of the Plastic Club is to be no less noteworthy than its past, Miss A. Margaretta Archambault spoke about her and the Plastic Club’s work in promoting rotary exhibitions.

The Annual Sketch Class Exhibition of the Plastic Club will be opened with a private view, April 13 at 4:00 p.m. Mrs. John H. Gunter, Chairman, will be assisted by Mrs. Walter Greenwood, Mrs. Oliver W. McDowell, Mrs. Joseph W. Winter, Miss Margaret M. Welsh, hostesses, and Augusta H. Peoples, Chairman of the Exhibition Committee.

B. M. A. C.

At the Annual Meeting of the Business Men’s Art Club, held on March 14, the following officers were elected: President, William P. Lear; Vice-President, William J. Henderson; Secretary, George Lear; Treasurer, Paul R. Loos; Members of Executive Committee, Francis B. Hall, Theodore K. Gramm, Oswald Chew, and Karl Sevard.

ABOUT ARTISTS
“Portrait of an Artist” Photograph by Charles Ogle

ELIOT O’HARA, Philadelphia artist, is holding a retrospective exhibition, subtitled “Ten Years of Water Color Painting,” at the Argent Galleries, New York City, through April 16. Mr. O’Hara, known here as a distinguished painter, is instructor in water color at the School of Industrial Art.

H. WILLARD ORTLIP, and his wife Aimee E. Ortlip will exhibit their paintings at the Studio Guild, New York, from April 11 to 23. Mr. Ortlip has resided in Philadelphia for twenty-five years and is well known as a portrait painter.

HENRIETTE WYETH, member of the very well known artist family of Chadds Ford, is holding a one man show, “Paintings and Portraits,” at the Reinhardt Galleries, New York City until April 16.

ANDREW WYETH, young Chadds Ford painter, attains a still wider recognition through the reproduction of five of his Maine water colors in the April issue of Scribner’s Magazine.

An exhibition of sculpture by Cornelia A. Van Chapin is on view at the Fifteen Gallery, New York City, until April 16.

THE TWENTY-SECOND EXHIBITION of art by members of the Ceramic League of Philadelphia was held at the Plastic Club on April 8. Tea was served from two until six.

The April 7 meeting of the Miniature Camera Club, held at the Engineers Club, had as its main feature a talk by Richard R. Frame, photographer for Gimbel Bros. Store. Mr. Frame spoke on “Illustrative Photography, and Some of Its Problems.”

PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION By RHODES R. STABLEY

Head of English Department Radnor High School

It is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that laymen are taking a livelier interest in education today than at any time in national history. Meetings such as those recently held at Atlantic City have attracted the scrutiny and the comments of non-professional observers to an extent which is amazing to teachers who have accustomed themselves to thinking that affairs of education are dull stuff to the general mind. Interest is especially sharp on controversial issues which appear to be dividing educators into hostile camps.

Shades of the modernist fundamental conflict in religion of the last decade! We have the old forces at work socking each other in the same old way but in a different terrain. In education it is the liberal against the conservative, the Progressives against the Essentialists. Dorothy Thompson in a recent article professed to see in this hostile alignment the rising of a revolt of the parents—together with many teachers—against the fads and frills, the ineptitudes and absurdities of “progressive” education. Children are not being taught manners or morals, arithmetic or spelling, history or punctuation; they will do nothing they do not wish to do, they rarely do well the things they wish to do, and they usually wish to do only the things that are easy.

As a teacher in one of these so-called progressive schools I am, of course, convinced of the rightness of the progressive ideology. Far be it from me to define this ideology for the satisfaction of anyone in or out of the schools. But from the welter of words, ideas, principles, and concepts emerges one central fact about the Progressive movement which no one can honestly deny: it is a movement designed to help teachers and administrators “get at” the individual child in order to give him the help he needs. It is spurred on by the conviction that the old methods under which we adults were trained did little to discover the individual and less to assist him. It is convinced that head cramming, group drills, the A-B-C-D-E marking system, uniform requirements for all, and uniform standards for all are usually more effective in concealing a lad than in revealing him; it does not swallow and digest the old assumption that knowledge of facts means virtue in action and thinking. On the positive side it simply says: find out about the youngster—his attitudes, abilities, and interests; then help him to live and grow as a person in a world of his fellows. If there is anything undemocratic, communistic, or “subversive” in this doctrine, the burden of proof is on its critics.

ON THE SPOT SAGA OF A CAMERATEER By CHARLES OGLE
VII

Another brush with the French police occurred one time when I was working on a feature story with pictures of Parisian night life in Montmartre and Montparnasse. The spectacle of gargons de café or agents de police propelling a struggling and usually tipsy café girl from the bar to the curb was a not infrequent real life picture. But it always happened when I was minus my camera. I decided to stage this myself in the interest of the series and I looked around for a likely habituee of the Quarter who might be persuaded to be thrown out of a cafe for Art’s sake . . . and a hundred francs. There was a girl whom I shall call Mickey, because that is not her name, and who I shall say came from Holland because that is where she came from. I was agreeably surprised to find her falling in with the idea quite enthusiastically. We took a table on the fringe of a popular and crowded Montparnasse cafe, ordered a couple of Pernods, and endeavoured to bribe a waiter or two, who knew Mickey, to do their strongarm stuff. They were not to be cajoled, however, so we finished our drinks and I offered my companion the francs anyway. She ordered another Pernod, looked at me and said, “Do you want to get that picture?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Then get out there to the curb. Keep your camera out of sight, and watch me.” A game gal, that. I got into a taxi at the curb. The top was down and I opened the camera in the bottom of the tonneau.

Mickey finished her drink calmly, and then reached over to a neighboring table, snatched the hat from the head of an astonished American, removed the hatband and threw the hat into the street. A couple of tables and chairs followed the hat with magnificent abandon. The Café terrace was in an instant uproar. People were on their feet, standing on chairs and table tops to watch and cheer as Mickey really warmed up to her work. Waiters dashed forward.

“Call a couple of cops,” said the embattled lady, “I want to be arrested.” With that she coolly hurled another chair across the pavement. Her gestures were grand. A blue-coated policeman shouldered his way through the crowd. The waiters were nonplussed.

“One policeman’s not enough to arrest me.” Mickey declared indignantly.

That’s why French agents de police generally travel in pairs; it is beneath Gallic personal dignity to submit to arrest by one man. Two police, of course, outnumber one and individual pride is thus preserved.

Another agent appeared and they obligingly dragged their dramatically struggling prisoner to the curb while the camera clicked. There they good-naturedly let her free, but I saw too late, as I pulled her into my cab, that one of them had spotted my camera. He tumbled to the trick at once as my chauffeur stepped on the gas, and they both promptly stepped on the running-board and directed the driver to the nearest police station, which happened to be just around the corner. There we were hailed before the Commissaire who demanded to know what it was all about. I exhibited my press card and explained that I was merely taking a shot for a series of night life pictures. He examined my passport and carte d’identitie and after assuring him that my pictures and article intended no disrespect to the French police I was permitted to go. Not so Mickey. Unfortunately she did not have her passport or identity card with her and stayed in durance vile while I scouted around to find her papers and effected her release. The French police are invariably charming to foreigners and blessed as a rule with a keen sense of humor, but visiting firemen had best be possessed of their papers.

(To be continued)

ART IN PRINT By BEN WOLF

Three cheers for Walt Kuhn for preserving the story of the Armory Show for future generations. Mr. Kuhn, who was executive secretary of the exhibition, has told the story of that momentous show in a little pamphlet dedicated to the American artist of the future. Lucidly written, it explains the conditions that led up to the show as well as the concrete results. Plans for the exhibition sent Mr. Kuhn to Germany, Holland, France and England where he collected pertinent examples of the great moderns of the day. Mr. Kuhn modestly gives much of the credit for the Armory Show’s phenomenal success to the great American painter, Arthur B. Davies, who, Mr. Kuhn tells us, financed most of the exhibition from his own pocket.

As many of us know, the exhibition was held in the 165th Regiment Infantry Building in New York. The examples of art it fostered gave America its first opportunity to view the work of such men as Matisse, Dufy, Van Gogh. In large measure it was responsible for the purchase of a Cezanne by the Metropolitan Museum. Following its tremendous success in New York, the show went to Chicago where it enjoyed similar enthusiasm, and then to Boston where it was not so happily received.

The author attributes much of the modernity of design of our present apparel, automobiles, aeroplanes, etc. to the influence of that eye-opening exhibition of 1913. We understand that this pamphlet is not for sale, but we suspect that Mr. Kuhn would be only too glad to forward you a copy as he did your reviewer, who wrote to him at 112 E. 18th St., New York City, enclosing postage.

PAINT-CRAFT CRAFTSMANSHIP OF FINE ARTS PAINTING By F. W. WEBER

Another red lake pigment, perhaps one of the oldest dye-stuffs known, is Kermes. It is said to have been used as a dye in the time of Moses. Pliny, A. D. 77, calls it “coccigranum” and speaks of it as greatly valued in the days of the Roman Empire as a dye-stuff. The Venetian Scarlet of the Middle Ages was also obtained from Kermes. The pigments prepared from it in ancient times were usually precipitated on a base of chalk or gypsum and consequently appear more opaque than the modern transparent alumina base lakes. This deep crimson coloring matter of yellowish-red hue is a product of the insect Coccus Ilicis, resembling the Cochineal, the source of the rich and brilliant Carmine since about 1500 A. D. The Kermes Red and Carmine do not show the desirable stability of the Madder Lakes.

Another rather dull deep red lake pigment in use, at this time, was Lac Lake. It and Kermes were almost entirely displaced by the introduction of the more permanent Madder Lakes.

Dragon’s Blood, a deep red-brown colored resin, was called “Cinnabar” by the ancients and was also mentioned by Pliny in his natural history. It is now used principally as a coloring for lacquers, varnishes, toilet articles, etc., but seldom as an artist’s color. It exudes from wounds made in the bark of an Asiatic tree. The color, although rather fugitive under prolonged direct sunlight exposure, was principally valued for glazing.

From the very earliest times, prehistoric man made use of the prehistoric man made use of the natural red earths for purposes of decoration. These red ochres were selected for their beauty of color, ranging from cool bluish to warm yellowish reds. Early reference in ancient Grecian and Roman times was made to particularly bright varieties under the names Rubics and Sinopis.

It is very confusing to trace the history of some of the early pigments. For instance, Sinopis is sometimes described in early manuscripts as an especially bright red ochre. Again, we find the natural mineral “cinnabar” also given this name. Dragon’s Blood also appears under the name “cinnabar”. Pliny refers correctly to vermilion as “minium”, which name is now given to red lead.

(To be continued)

THEODORE DILLAWAY HONORED IN BOSTON

A former Philadelphia Art Teacher, Dorothy Oldach, now Supervisor of Art in the Schools of Bernardsville, N. J., delivered a lecture April 8, at the Vesper George School, Boston, Massachusetts on the Palettes of Contemporary American Painters. Her talk attracted many of the Art Teachers attending the Eastern Arts Convention which was being held in Boston at that time.

Local artists whose palettes Miss Oldach projected in color on the screen are Theodore Dillaway, Director of Art Education, Philadelphia Schools, who is also a very talented painter, Yarnall Abbott and Henry Pitz whose palettes were reproduced in this paper March 28, Henry B. Snell, and others. Interesting in connection with this talk was the fact that Mr. Dillaway has been President of the Eastern Arts Association, as well as Director of Art in the Boston Schools in past years.

Miss Oldach is planning to give her talk to a number of Art Organizations, Museums, and Women’s Clubs in the Philadelphia area, and those interested in this illustrated lecture may communicate with her at the Bernardsville High School.